Colonial powers and battles

Someone pointed out that the "low-tech" colonial systems of the future
for metalwork might easily churn out military designs of today. Let me
put it this way, the 2185 Newest AutoFactory from UberZaibatsu might
well manufacture a state of the art grav tank from scratch in about 2
hours, without any human intervention, and might also be capable of
building passenger cars, trucks, LTA vehicles, etc. all without
anything but a setting switch.
The Colonial Model may feature half as many designs (only 5000 as
opposed to 10000), not be capable of producing the advanced
electronics or stealth systems, not produce luxury models, and may
take 4 hours to build a 2160s Tracklayer tank without bells and
whistles, just as it produces Tractors, Threshers, Mining machines,
etc....

Would they have the designs? Probably 100 year old designs
de-classified would be easily available. 50 year old designs would
probably be common. 20 year old designs might need permission. new
designs would not be. But if computer memory has increased say 1000
fold in the last two decades, and it keeps going, we'll have many many
orders of magnitude more data storage for a neglibible cost so sure...
I'd load up every conceivable design into my AutoFactory Colonial
(2180 edition... we couldn't afford the new one...we're a poor colony)
and some of them would be military - just as a precaution.

And as for cranking out Arty, I'm sure a relatively mid-cost CAD/CAM
system could crank out the parts here on Earth Today, and 200 years
means a child's KiddieMechanoHomeLab(tm) could probably do it. The one
thing you won't have a shortage of in some colonies is raw materials.
You might need the OreProcessorInABox(tm) to turn it into steel for
artillery, but again by 2183, this is probably trivial.

Surely, everyone can see the necessity for isolated communities to
have this type of technology, and the argument for why progress will
inevitably make it affordable and feasible. There is little reason I
can see why even a 10K colony starter couldn't churn out serviceable
rifles and light artillery. In small quantities. And if they want
state of the art stuff, they order it from either FEDEX by the GWW
(Galaxy-Wide Web) or from some local area scumbag gun-runners - as Los
pointed out, there will always be someone willing to provide arms to
the natives.

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008