Re: Colony Critical Mass

In message
<Pine.HPP.3.96.971120110745.18458A-100000@hp09.ee.ualberta.ca>
	  Chen-Song Qin <cqin@ee.ualberta.ca> wrote:

> <rant>
> harmony" with nature.  It has been shown by archeology that almost all
> primitive peoples across the world plundered nature whenever possible,
and
> </rant>

Why stop with humans? Dumb animals do much the same if
given half a chance. So do plants for that matter.

> On topic:
> 
> This kind of leads me to a question here.  If a planet is actually
M-class
> and well-inhabitable by humans, wouldn't it be reasonable that life
> (especially intelligent life) already exist?	How colonists interact
with
> the locals might provide a much more interesting scenario...

Not sure what you mean by M-class (Earth-like?).

Anyway, if colonists were to meet 'intelligent' natives,
then they're most likely to be stone age cultures at best.
Realisation that humans have come across alien intelligence
might not occur until it's too late (ie they've almost been
wiped out).

Within a window of planetary evolution several billion
years wide, we'd have to catch them in a period about
a million years across just to have them fire using.
If you want actualy civilisation, then you've only got
maybe ten thousand years. Any later than this period,
and they'll probably be meeting us.

-- 
Be seeing you,
Sam.