Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4242472-20140714110351/@comment-1073312-20140714113240

I suggest examining this, the best hardness grading out there. I think the world should range between "Present Day Tech" (or nowpunk) to "Ultra hard" (certain cyberpunk corporations with cybernetics, nanotech, biotech and advanced electronics/spintronics/condensed matter technologies). It is hard to conceive how an Ultra-Hard civilisation is not exploring space unless there is a good reason for it (such as some in-universe law of physics; i.e. not on a planet but on some other imaginable world, or a virtual reality, or an alien zoo). Social explanations would be much more complicated.

A pick and mix bag.