This is an article that readers asked me to write, to provide a summary and a sort of list of all the science fiction elements in the world of Gor. I haven’t covered everything that’s possible, but it should provide a good overview of the subject and its contents.

If you thought that an alien species millions of years old and capable of moving a planet (the priest-kings), whose underground city lies at the heart of Gor civilization, was the science-fiction side of Gor, you’re not ready for the rest!

I’d also like to start by recalling what Goreans are capable of, and what exists, whether common or rare. While steam and industrial machinery are unknown, and almost everyone uses traditional lighting methods such as candles and torches, the same cannot be said for electricity. Goreans use energy bulbs, which are electric super-batteries that power many electrical and electronic machines and technologies.

These marvels, reserved for the wealthiest but not so rare, are most often artifacts supplied indirectly by the Priest-Kings, but also objects that have been collected on Earth, during missions by agents of the Priest-Kings or the Kurii. Others are created and manufactured by the Goreans themselves. These include electric lighting, dynamos, blood analysis machines, medical X-rays, slave prods, universal translators, electric locks or electrified cages, electric blankets, refrigerators, even loudspeakers and multimedia players (yes, you can listen to music on a CD-ROM in some of Gor’s luxurious living rooms); there are even a few blast furnaces powered by electricity.

More commonly, there are many very practical things: precision metallurgy, including clocks and micromechanics, paper and printing, chronometers and marine compasses, compasses, semi-industrial weaving using mechanized looms, embroidery and semi-industrial glass, lighters and other firelighters, wire and wire mesh, ceramics and porcelain, hydraulic and pneumatic machinery, ovens and high-temperature furnaces, as well as refractory bricks, cement, reinforced concrete, alloys and high-grade steel. They are also familiar with telescopes, scopes, magnifiers and microscopes.

That said, and to conclude, most Goreans live without knowing about these marvels, or seeing little of them. In the early ^20th century, the streets of Paris were lit by gas and electric lamps. There were telegraph cables everywhere, and newspapers and brasseries on every corner. There were cars, streetcars and wide, clean, well-maintained sidewalks on which the bourgeoisie walked, emerging from the hot bath provided by real water heaters and dressed in the finest fabrics and most modern accessories. The metro opened in front of the Eiffel Tower, an architectural marvel, and elevators were becoming commonplace. But 100 kilometers away, the peasant and small craftsman living in a village knew nothing of these technological marvels, and their way of life was hardly any different from their counterparts in the Middle Ages. In the West, the immense gap between the most modern and the most basic comforts only ceased in the 50s with the advent of the mass consumer society. The vast majority of goreans live in basic comfort and without any of the marvels of which their civilization is capable, which, even if they exist, are totally inaccessible to them.

1- Sciences & technics in Gor

What is the most common and widespread skill that Goreans possess in their science fantasy world? Don’t use your knowledge of the ancient or medieval world as a reference. Goreans have the means to produce materials, fabrics, and consumer goods worthy of the ^18th and ^19th centuries, with here and there technical and technological marvels from the ^20th century, or even pure science fiction. Weaving a carpet by hand, with a tapestry frame, takes weeks, but with a mechanized frame, it only takes a few days. The same goes for cutting a gemstone or making a plate. You don’t even need steam engines or internal combustion engines. Good mechanics based on hydraulics and human power save a tremendous amount of time, allowing for greater production with the same quality. What’s more, it’s possible to do things that are almost impossible to do by hand.

Finally, the Gorans have also borrowed heavily from Earth’s creations, seeking to adapt what Earthlings have invented to their own needs and culture. With an average of a few thousand Earthlings on Gor, and regular travel between the two planets, there are bound to be technological contributions that inspire Gorian creativity and innovation. Gorians abandon some things and exploit others, but in any case, this contribution is very real and still explains the great variety that exists on Gor.

But where is the limit?

In fact, it is cultural and social, long before it is technical. Norman, in an interview, said: “What is not beautiful is not Gorean.” I will leave him responsible for his words, because many of the things described in his novels are not beautiful at all, in my opinion. But the quote raises an important point about the Gorean mentality: they love beauty, and they love to use it and create it. Industrial production is very efficient at producing things quickly and well, but if you want something beautiful and of high quality, you need the hand of a craftsman.

For example, a Gorean would not want a machine that copies patterns onto a ceramic plate, or a weaving workshop that produces patterns automatically. They would be happy to produce the fabric more quickly and be able to sew it more easily, but they would insist that the lace be made by hand. A machine that cuts boards and sands them? Yes, but a machine that engraves wood? No. Finally, Gorans are much more attracted to a certain simplicity of comfort and to things of natural origin. They prefer cushions to seats, candlelight to electric light bulbs. They prefer wood and stone to concrete and metal, including in their architecture.

Finally, Gorans are conservative. They like things to be done “the old way” and are wary of innovation. This goes hand in hand with certain religious taboos concerning technology and modernity. The caste of initiates is very strict on this subject and very powerful. Thus, while Gorans are not hostile to efficient and practical technologies, those that are too modern are frowned upon, even feared.

2- The technology of the Priest-Kings

Let’s start with the heavy stuff: their main source of energy is antimatter! Why am I so sure? Because at the heart of the nest lies the main Homestone of Gor, the original “Gor”, the reactor that supplies the Priest-Kings with the energy that powers all their technology. It’s also this machine that is endangered in the novel Priest-king of Gor, and which threatens to explode, destroying the planet. While Norman never goes into detail about what this machine is, he describes it well enough to suggest a matter-antimatter reaction core. Why not, for example, a nuclear fusion reactor, which would be much more technologically accessible? Because a fusion reactor cannot explode and cause global damage. In a fusion reactor, the reaction is intrinsically metastable. The slightest disturbance and the reactor stops, without any runaway. It cannot cause large-scale damage. Antimatter, on the other hand, in the event of an accident, is quite simply the most unstable and potentially powerful explosive force in the universe. More than enough to sterilize a continent or ravage an entire planet.

And it’s also the most powerful source of energy allowed by the laws of physics. The Priest-Kings have mastered gravity and moved their entire world in this way on an interstellar voyage. Such a source of energy, facilitated by access to gravity control, is hardly surprising.

The Priest-Kings’ greatest technological achievement is antigravity. By controlling gravity and inertia, they can build flying machines and spaceships that consume little fuel to move, and whose mass and speed are no longer a real concern. That said, this mastery of gravity is still imperfect, compared with what physics assumes it allows. The Priest-Kings can’t fold space-time, nor can they create wormholes, and while their vehicles go very fast, they’re not that fast on a stellar scale. On the other hand, this opens the door to related technologies, such as force fields and electro-optical camouflage screens (basically, they can make their vehicles totally invisible.)

And you know what else you can make when you master gravity? Cold fusion batteries ! This is obviously what powers everything in Priest-Kings technology that’s too small to accommodate an antimatter reactor. In fact, I’m guessing that it’s this technology that the Gorean Builders caste may have studied and drawn inspiration from to create their greatest invention: light bubbles, which are electric batteries with years of autonomy, as much as they are light sources.

In terms of computer technology, the Priest-Kings are advanced, but have apparently never invented artificial intelligence or even expert computer systems capable of advanced learning. They need a few hundred people to monitor the screens and sensors of their spy network on Gor, for example. On the other hand, their capacity for storing and transferring information is extremely extensive: Priest-Kings learn by direct neural transfer of information into their brains from disc-shaped recorded media. They can even copy the entire memory of an individual (including a human) onto one of their disks, consult this database, and even transfer it to another brain. They also have an extensive radio wave communication network, including satellites, drones, or simply their spaceships, which are all automated and remotely piloted.

On the other hand, apparently, the Priest-Kings don’t use robotics, or rather, Norman doesn’t describe or talk about them. I think they do, but as on Earth; industrial robotics whose autonomy is limited to following a set program, like advanced machine tools. This would be consistent with the absence of expert computer systems.

Have the Priest-Kings created an advanced Internet and virtual realities? Norman doesn’t mention it, but given the way the Priest-Kings work and think, and given their technology, it wouldn’t be surprising if they did, for scientific and intellectual purposes. It’s a much more practical interface for accelerated learning, and also for experimenting with concrete or abstract problems in an accessible way.

As I’ve already mentioned, Priest-Kings are virtually immortal. Their mastery of cell regeneration and cloning is only part of their knowledge of advanced biotechnology. Some of the Muls in the nest are genetically enhanced clones, while others are totally artificial creations, like those mutants who no longer resemble humans, the Gur carriers. And cybernetics? It also exists and is mentioned, through certain espionage and control implants that the Priest-Kings use on human agents: neural lattices, ocular implants, and so on. This seems to go rather further, with biocybernetically enhanced Muls, and I imagine that the Priest-Kings themselves are equipped with them according to their needs, although this is never mentioned.

Repairing or upgrading a human isn’t really a big deal for a Priest-King. If they don’t, it’s, again, because they prefer to let humans fend for themselves. But, having said that, the Priest-Kings do manufacture, for the Goreans, various machines, such as particularly advanced medical systems: blood analysis machines and genetic sequencers and probably medical refrigerators, for example. So, for me, it’s all the more proof that the Priest-Kings, even if they remain rather indifferent to humans, still see an interest in helping them. On this subject, the Priest-Kings also master hypersleep and provide stasis chambers to safely transport abducted women to Earth. This is a well-known item among Gorean slavers.

Another topic not covered, but inferred, is the Priest-Kings’ mastery of terraforming. Gor has been reshaped to suit the life forms implanted on the planet, and it took unimaginable technological means for the planet to make an interstellar voyage without ending up an icy, barren rock. So, if need be, the Priest-Kings must be able to deploy automated machines on an immense scale, as well as advanced nanotechnologies, which must, therefore, enable them to create incredible alloys and meta-materials. We see glimpses of this here and there in the novels.

And finally, let’s talk about weapons. I won’t dwell on the subject, but it seems that the Priest-Kings’ weaponry is based on plasma, a specific form of directed radiation weaponry, at least as far as their personal weapons and those deployed on Gor are concerned. The reason I’m betting on plasma is that lasers aren’t generally good weapons, especially in space, and plasma beams are much more credible for a civilization that has mastered gravity. Plus, it fits in well with the description of an intense blue fire that incinerates everything it touches in a second. But the Priest-Kings also have infra-sonic defensive weapons, such as the protective screen around the Sardar Mountains, which visibly affects the inner ear of any living being that enters it, causing nausea and fainting. It’s handy for making a place inaccessible with an invisible, non-mortal force.

Have I forgotten any? Yes, I’m sure you have, so please mention them in the comments, and thank you!

3- Terran technology

It’s not just women (and a few men) who make up the cargo of the Voyages of Acquisition between Earth and Gor. Traffickers also take the opportunity to bring back objects and technologies that are interesting or attractive to the people of Gor. Here, it’s easier to say what they don’t take, rather than what they do. The automated ships of the Priest-Kings make it easy enough to carry anything, provided there’s enough room. But the Priest-Kings’ laws on science and technology make some trafficking dangerous, even suicidal.

First and foremost, Goreans carry no firearms, ammunition or explosives, not even good old-fashioned matches (because of the chemistry involved in creating and operating them). Nor do goreans carry the slightest radio communication device: no ci-bi, radios, walkie-talkies, cell phones, and so on. Not a good idea either. Finally, no combustion engines or flammable fuels such as gasoline. All these products are absolutely forbidden by the Priest-Kings.

What about the rest? Do they carry computers, screens and keyboards? Or electronic components or electromechanical systems? Hard disks with databases? Books? Undoubtedly, yes. But these aren’t necessarily very useful things for all goreans, except for a few individuals, who will hide all this equipment, because the first Initiate who sees this, even without understanding what it is, immediately goes crazy.

What’s certainly more useful is to take on board objects and materials for which there are Gorean equivalents, but which Earthlings know how to make to a much higher quality: microscopes, stethoscopes, X-ray equipment, mechanical or craft tools, but also materials that don’t exist on Gor, such as titanium, aluminum, tungsten, carbon-carbon or micro-ceramics: Goreans can work them very well, but not produce them.

There are also luxury products: precious stones on Earth are much better cut and more beautiful than on Gor, for example, and gold is (relatively) easier to buy and purer. But you can also add luxury textiles, rare furniture or crockery, or even things as simple as wired cameras, microphones, or even a record player and music records that appeal to certain Gorean people. Not forgetting, of course, jewelry and Earth accessories of varying degrees of eroticism for the slaves, because if you’re going to have a human cargo, you might as well sell accessories to play with and adorn them!

In any case, the quantities of Earth items imported to Gor are limited, and the trade is kept secret. It usually only concerns the richest people with the most extravagant tastes, or certain Gor workshops, laboratories and medical practices that need cutting-edge equipment that Gor can’t produce.

And does this list of Terran imports include drugs and medicines? Undoubtedly yes. But the Goreans are very careful with these: who knows what kind of chemistry could ultimately cause the Priest-Kings to be alerted, and so end very badly for them? That said, the Goreans aren’t going to deny themselves the opportunity to study what the Earthlings know how to do.

4- Gorean technology

I won’t go into everything the Goreans know how to do, but we can mention their advanced mastery of architecture and building materials, including reinforced concrete, as well as their advanced knowledge of town planning and urban equipment, with running water, sewers, water heaters and thermal insulation.

Add to this their mastery of hydraulic power and human-powered mechanics for industrial machinery, and their skills in steel forging and blast furnaces. Among other things, they know how to make wire.

They are also well versed in optics and physics, and know how to create pairs of spectacles, spotting scopes, magnifying glasses or microscopes, micro-tools, but also marine compasses, compasses and fairly accurate clocks. Automata, too, though primarily decorative and luxury machines.

In the physical realm, Goreans know how to make efficient iceboxes, capable of keeping ice and products cold, even in the height of summer. Gas compression/decompression refrigerators also exist, but are rare and of very limited use.

On the subject of chemistry and physics, there are no matches, and it’s best not to try to make them (Author’s note: too bad, once you know the recipe, it’s easy to do). But flint and tinder firelighters are sophisticated, like 17th-century lighters, and there are even rarer electric-spark variants. But nothing with gas. Gas explode, and the Priest-Kings don’t like it at all.

As for electricity and light, Gorean engineers have created super-batteries, the light bubbles (also called energy bubbles), which are, at least that’s what I assume, small cold fusion batteries, no doubt invented with inspiration from other more advanced technology, such as that of the Priest-Kings or the Kurri. Lasting several years, they supply electricity and often emit light. Their size varies according to use, an easy conclusion to make given the existence in novels of electrified collars or different models of slave goads. There are even electric lamps!

But that’s not all! Let’s not forget their mastery of micromechanics, enough to make a watch, or incredibly complex micro-fittings, but also quite advanced electromechanical machines, such as loudspeakers and microphones, electrified gates with electric locks, electric micromotors for a wide variety of uses. They could easily create a telegraph, but this, if it went beyond communication within the same building, would contravene the laws of the Priest-Kings.

Not to mention the techniques of Gorean medical pharmacopoeia. Although not as good surgeons as Earthlings, Gorean doctors understand the role of organs, blood circulation, general brain function, anatomy, microbiology, genetics, artificial selection (including on humans), dietetics, epidemiology and vaccination. They even have psychiatrists! And and the best equipped of them have access to medical scanners, genetic sequencing equipment, cryogenic systems, and biochemistry labs that rival those of the 1970s on Earth. Yes, goreans know how to perform artificial insemination.

In addition to vaccines against the most infectious diseases and the well-known Longevity Serum, which enables Goreans to live for hundreds of years, there’s slave wine to control women’s fertility, pharmaceutical treatments for most cancers and certain cardiovascular diseases, and Goreans even have drugs capable of inducing selective amnesia– temporary, definitive and even reversible, if properly used by a specialist!

Lastly, and more commonly, Goreans are familiar with plastics, obviously of plant origin, natural rubber, which they have mastered, modern paper and movable type printing. They also know how to make large glass plates and mirrors. And last but not least, they understand the use of fingerprints, which are very useful for identifying slaves.

The only thing the Goreans will never do, apart from anything involving explosives, is a vehicule with an electric or internal combustion engine. The Priest-Kings totally forbid any research in this field.

Of course, I couldn’t go through the whole list – there must be more. For example, could the bicycle be created and used on Gor? A good question, but one that Norman hasn’t thought of. What about hang-gliding, which uses no engine at all? A good question too; after all, Gor people have tarns for flying, so why would that really be impossible?

5- What you can find on Gor

This list is far from exhaustive! All these things, even though they are often expensive, are relatively widespread and well known, at least among the High Castes and wealthy Gorans, who use them without hesitation!

• – Rich and varied fabrics of all types and colors, with brocades, woven or painted patterns, gold and silver threads, held together by buttons, sophisticated clasps, and much more. Zippers too? The invention dates back to the late ^19th century, so I’m sure the Goreans have plenty to imitate.
• – Very complex garments, such as corsets, harnesses, garters, high shoes and boots, hats, tights, and stockings, including transparent silk ones. Form-fitting clothes? They appeared as early as the ^18th century, so yes, without a doubt!
• – Highly sophisticated micromechanical systems, whether included in necklaces, shackles, locks, music boxes, small automata, or watches. A realistic automaton that pretends to play the kaïssa? Yes, like the Mechanical Turk invented in the ^18th century!
• – Pairs of glasses, spyglasses, magnifying glasses, microscopes and, of course, practical solar lighters! But also sextants and solar compasses!
• – Glass tableware, large windows, mirrors of all shapes and sizes, aquariums and vivariums.
• – Bronze, iron, and steel utensils of the finest workmanship, solid and sophisticated, whether cutlery, hand tools, surgical instruments, etc.
• – Central heating, water heaters, water distribution to the tap. Much of this technology is Roman, and the Goreans have much better hydraulic technology!
• – Refrigeration by thermal insulation (passive refrigeration, which has been around for 1,500 years), or electrically powered gas compression/decompression systems, like real refrigerators.
• – Improved lighting, using oil, alcohol, or even electric light bubbles.
• – Electric gates and doors, electrified cages or enclosures, slave goads.
• – Phonographs and record players, voice recording, microphones and loudspeakers. Cameras? However, I have not found any reference to this outside of the Nest of the Priest-Kings in Sardar.
• – Plastic medical and chemical utensils (of plant origin), micro-surgery instruments.