Is a combination of ancient aesthetics with advanced technology plausible in OTL?

[alter]

In the sci-fi series "Stargate" there are many examples of humanoid alien civilizations which both have ridiculously advanced technology and millennia-old traditions authentically preserved in their cultures and day to day life.

For example, one civilization in the series, the Tok'ra, have faster-than-light travel, advanced computers, energy weapons, and advanced healing devices. Socially they have an advanced legal system and civil rights even surpassing early 21st century humanity, but still prefer to live in dwellings reminiscent of Imperial Rome and High Medieval Europe, with flaming torches giving illumination, walls made of stone, and people wearing robes instead of shirts and pants, or elastic onesies.

At the beginning of the Stargate movie "Continuum" for example, we can see a Tok'ra execution. It is very ceremonial with hooded priests listing the crimes of the convict with Orthodox Christian-style chants in a vaulted underground chamber, while torches and oil lamps provide illumination, and the ceremony lasts at least 3 hours.

In OTL, similar examples seem to only come from traditional Christian churches, mostly Orthodox, but in some cases, Catholic. For example, I've read that in some Orthodox congregations, illuminating the church with electrical lights rather than candles continues to be frowned upon, most prominiently Ukrainian Orthodox churches prefer to adhere to fire-based lighting and the believers attending in traditional robe-like clothes, rather than either Western-style formal suits, or casual everyday clothes.

Would it be plausible to have this traditionalism be extended to other aspects of daily life, not just religious traditions in the 21st century?

 

[da Racontor]

Yes it would, the two things I would suggest for a POD is have a less anti-religious enlightenment and/or a more controlled industrial revolution. Both those events put a large emphasis on "what is old is bad" to further themselves, so modify them and you could get something similar to what you want.

 

[Polish Eagle]

Tight breeches and cravats aren’t inherently superior to kaftans and sashes. There’s no reason a society can’t dress radically differently from our own. We might all sneer derisively at pants-wearers in a world where the Ottoman Empire or Poland-Lithuania or Orthodox Russia became the dominant civilization.

Fire illumination is tougher because it is so obviously inferior to electric—dirtier, more dangerous, dimmer. But I can easily imagine a world where electric chandeliers are more popular than fluorescent tubes.

As to other aesthetics, there were Greek, Roman, and Egyptian revival movements in architecture, and a Neo-Gothic movement, so there’s no reason a consumerist society can’t emulate old aesthetics. The problem is keeping that emulation going a long time.

 

[Scott_B]

The Tok’ra were essentially on the run, and needed to be able to blend in with the cultures on planets that the Goa’uld dominated. Cultures that their hosts also came from.

I’m not sure that their use of ‘primitive’ tech was a choice, it was a necessity. And like the Goa’uld, what tech they did have was largely stolen, further adding to the mish mash effect.


For something more realistic, perhaps a movement related to environmentalism / climate change; seeking to incorporate ‘natural’ solutions to some problems alongside more advanced technologies?