What would be the technological limitations of an advanced aquatic species?

Question

My latest idea for worldbuilding involves a world in which the surface of the planet is 95% of the planet's surface covered in saltwater (there are still minerals and other collectible resources on the ocean floor). The species of this world, a fully aquatic species called the Aizon, are highly intelligent and have telepathic abilities which act as their main method of communication.

Their civilization is meant to be a technological marvel that surpasses all of my other societies in terms of advancement, but that leads to my biggest question. Is it even possible for an aquatic society to get significantly more advanced than a terrestrial one? How could that be achieved?

Specifically, I am asking what kind of limitations would there be to technology if everything had to be made and manufactured underwater. Are there certain things that could simply not be realistically achieved? While I am not making a science fiction novel, I still want there to be a reasonable explanation for how this society arose in the first place.

Here are some of the most obvious ideas I have thought about.

1. Hydroelectric power would probably be the most likely source of power for a world that is underwater. Powerful currents would be able to spin a turbine which would then allow there to be power. However, this leads to a problem.

2. Since water and electricity are a dangerous combination, wouldn't it be a risk just to have generators in the first place? If it is impossible to safely generate electricity underwater without having my species fry themselves, that would make advancement extremely difficult, would it not?

3. Another issue I see is the problem of how they are going to get around. Cars would not be practical underwater, and swimming around everywhere would be about as exhausting as forcing people to walk to and from work and such. Perhaps there would be some type of special submarinelike vehicles these people could drive around? That certainly sounds plausible, though it's made more difficult to swallow when you consider these submarines would have to be filled with water to allow the species to breathe while inside the vehicle.

Summary: To be very specific with my question, I just want to know if there are any insurmountable limits to underwater technology, problems that no amount of creativity could solve. Is an underwater utopia with working electricity, supercomputers, and possibly more, an impossibility? Or is it possible, just far more difficult to achieve than on land?

Edit: To clarify a little further, I don't just how technology can be made underwater, I wish to understand how far it could advance before it reaches a theoretical limit. Would water-based technology ever make a world far more advanced than ours? If so, how?

Answer 1

Because you are asking about the technology we will assume the lifeform that has developed has all the needed bits and parts, big brains, fine manipulators, etc...

For us, fire is a big deal. It can be argued that fire leads us to all our technology. Fire isn't generally possible underwater. Is that the only way? No.

I could see an underwater civilization's technology being organic in nature. Initially harvesting what grows naturally and moving into manipulating what grows and how it grows. Some of our most successful science and most sought-after effects are things we saw in the organic arena and tried to copy with our fire-based tech.

That could be much easier to do if your technology is organic too. Such a civilization would learn to manipulate biology and grow the specialized devices they need and build organisms out of those devices the way we build machines out of parts. These techniques should allow them to, at least reach our level of advancement.

Beyond that, it's harder to say. Many problems come down to a question of engineering. It isn't a question of "can we?", it's "how do we?" Organic tech would face its own issues and limits. But it still seems that imagination would be key.

The fact that everything has to grow would be a limitation. Quick replacements may be difficult if stockpiles are depleted. I think that would be a major problem, at least in the beginning. At the same time, we can imagine things assembled faster, like 3d printed organs so it may not be an issue for them as they advance. It is conceivable they could overcome the limitation of growth time for their technology.

I really don't see any issues with an underwater civilization rising to the same level we are. Beyond that is a matter of speculation. Still, if we can imagine a way to do a thing, they could imagine different ways.

EDIT I'd also like to note that fire is really a chemical process. Chemical processes can be readily duplicated biologically. In a way, human digestion breaks down food and "burns" it chemically. This is just another way organic-based tech is adaptable.