In one of my older settings ideas (that I never quite developed the stories well enough to properly write), I played with the twist that history went in such a way that the elves were the ones who developed a lot of more advanced technology first. (this had a lot to do with the humans and dwarves collectively pissing off the dragons, who then remained extremely suspicious for the next thousand years or so) As a result, technology in that setting had a much, much different feel, almost more like something out of a sci-fi series, really.