Re: [GZG] RE: Colonial tech level [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

["john tailby" <John_Tailby@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robertson, Brendan" <Brendan.Robertson@xxxxxxxxxx>
> I would think it convenient to assume that colony planets would have a tech
> level 20-30 years behind the homeworld (presuming travel is less than 6
> months - multiply appropriately for longer travel times).
>
> This would take into account things such as the education base required to
> service the latest technology and "dumping" of older (2nd hand) production
> equipment by corporations.

Why do you think this would happen?

Colonies will have the small amount of high tech gear that the colony ship 
can carry. This could easily be things like power generators and medical 
supplies.

When you get to the planet there is no infrastructure, no manufacturing, no 
communications grid, none of the high tech gadgets that people would take 
for granted. I think the colonists could suffer all sorts of mental distress 
over the change in lifestyle. Imagine taking a bunch of European or American 
city dwellers loading them on a ship and then dropping them off on a 
deserted island with no contact for 6 months and only 1 suitcase of supplies 
each.

What happens when their iPod batteries wear out and the have to talk to each 
other?

I think it is likely that the colony will face a considerable period as a 
agricultural community, and even that will take some time to get going.

On a colony planet any piece of technology you have has to be either self 
repairing not likely in the FT timeline or able to be repaired without spare 
parts. Otherwise your high tech gear fails / wears out and you can't repair 
it.

You could end up with a colony where the rich and powerful control the few 
remaining pieces of high tech gear say from the grounding site of the 
original colony barge and most of the colonists live as feudal subsitance 
agriculture and hunters in the wilderness.

As for corporations dumping their obsolete manufacturing plants on colony 
planets, I think this is very unlikely. It implies a generosity of spirit 
not found in corporations today. You don't get Ford or GM selling the 
manufacturing plants on the cheap to Asian or African countries so they can 
make their own cars.
The multinational corporations want to sell you endless supplies of products 
not make you self sufficient. That's why when you genetically engineer a 
plant to be disease resistant you give it a terminator gene so it dies and 
the farmer has to go back for more.

John 


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