RE: [DS and SG] Tech dispersal to the frontier

Interesting to draw parallels with some current or recent producers of
"lo-tech" weapons tech.

Hill tribesmen have been building small arms in
India/pakistan/Afghanistan
since pre-1900. Granted fairly basic 303 bolt action but in a village
environment with no other technology they can produce some very accurate
firearms.

The other fine example is in the Golden Triangle of
Thailand/Myanmar(Burma)where the drug lords in the back country had
factories producing small arms, heavy machine guns, mortars and the
ammunition for these as well as ammo for artillery up to and including
155mm!! So, proposing that colonies should be able to produce some
comparatively effective although 'relatively' lo-tech hardware in 2180's
should be very reasonable.

How far we go with these assumptions is worth a lot more argument, but
if we
give a population of some of these colonies as in excess of 1 million
people
we should have reasonable local tech levels. What do we define as
'self-supporting'?

Owen G