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Most cultures in the real world developed some variation of a sword, some more independently of one another than others. The macuahuitl being a notable example of this technological convergence. It seems to imply that regardless of the materials available to a culture, it will develope a weapon that is essentially a sword.
Does this logic apply to guns? A sword is a relatively simple concept that pretty much anyone could come up with. But if a human culture was say... bombed back into the stone age on an alien world, and had time to build up their technology again, would they eventually develope a weapon that is analogous to a gun?
If not, do you think there are any alternative weapons they might develop?
EDIT: Alright, I've been inundated with comments (not a bad thing at all, I am grateful for the input), and the overwhelming majority seems to agree that guns are somewhat of an inevitability, what differences do you think you'd encounter from a civilization that developed them independently of us? I'm curious to your guys' thoughts.
A lot of things look obvious in hindsight. You know those iron hand pumps? Those are way more recent than you think. Not even a millenium old. Despite running on very crude manufacturing principles. Germ theory? Yeah washing your hands seems obvious nowadays and you don't need to convince about 82% of the globe to wash their hands before preparing food. But we didn't really 'get' it before a number of smart someones slowly honed in on the why and how.
Ditto the gun. It's kind of obvious. But also China got its first cannons by buying them from Spanish missionaries despite having been the ones to invent gunpowder.
If the idea exists? Yeah they'd reinvent it again soonish. Not on the same level, but ball and cap guns? Sure.
The funny thing about that one is that we eventually did wind up making flappy wing planes work it was just well into the advent of the jet engine and no longer relevant.
It's my go-to example when talking about how good technology doesn't necessarily have to be exceptionally complex and how you can keep yourself from advancing for years by rejecting answers that don't seem pretty enough.
Birds are the only things that fly like birds. Everyone else flies more like a plane or a paraglider.
I suspect in a couple decades someone will say the same about our inability to crack dark Matter.
Point being.
Be unafraid to have the dark forbidden knowledge your scientist character stumbles upon being simple but crushing truth that they were perpetuating a centuries old collective ego trip. Not out of malice but inability to accept that they were simply too enamored with the beauty of the maths and the prestige of the people teaching it.
.... this got away from me.
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There's a nonzero chance the Nazca Lines were directed via hot air balloon but presently that's a fringe theory.
Then again the Antikythera Mechanism Being anything but a hoax or at best an artistic sculpture and most decidedly not a computation device was a fringe theory for nearly a full century so y'know. A lot can change.