<strong>Retro-Tek:</strong>Basic, everyday technology in the world is very much like that of the 1990s.  For instance, people use telephones, not futuristic vidphones, nor archaic telegraphs, for long-distance communication.  Televisions look like televisions, autos look like autos, there are still corner laundromats, and so forth.<br/><br/>But there are several quirks to that modern technology.  First, one effect of the economic depression has been a general deterioration of what is commonly considered modern.  Most consumer goods available to the common man and woman are no longer produced by corporations in Japan, Germany, or the US, but instead by the less technologically advanced corps in Mexico and the Eastern European states, and they resemble products from the US's '50s and '60s.  So telephones are once again bulky, black things, rather than the sleek, colorful, lightweight plastic ones we are familiar with.  Autos are boxier, a tendency reinforced by a 1940s retro-style movement.  TV screens are smaller (and often black and white rather than in color); radios are bigger.  In fact, because of a growing shortage of semiconductors, many consumer electronics  have reverted to vacuum-tube technology.<br/><br/><strong>HiTek:</strong>But the second technological quirk runs in direct contrast to the first.  That is, for those who can afford them, there exist virtual technological miracles.  It is this market that Japanese and German megacorps now target.  The wealthy can purchase pocket-sized portable computers with multimegabyte memories, holographic projectors rather than TVs, programmable home appliances (such as self-powered vacuum cleaners that follow programmed routes and schedules), ultra-sophicstical electronic security systems, and even high-quality mechanical replacements for failing organs, or cloned replacements, if they prefer.  A variety of robots are coming into use as well, although most of the mobile varieties are the result of military research and thus tend to be used for security tasks.  In any case, the abundance of ultra-cheap labor has made personal servants affordable and fashionable for wealthy individuals.