Re: colonial weapons (chip fabs and colony math)

At 7:35 PM -0500 1/29/02, Tomb wrote:
>1) chip fab in a box: who fixes it? It fixes itself, silly! My colonial
>micro-machine shops come with a self-diagnostic DPU subsystem which can
>temporarily control the nanofabricators to create repair parts and then
>control the micromanipulators to install them.

Wow. Really, even Fax machines come with Backup systems? Does that 
mean we don't need the Armored recovery vehicle for the tanks in a 
battle? I mean if the nanites can fix the basic technology fax 
machine by themselves, couldn't each tank carry around a barrel full 
of them to fix the broken track, grav impeller, wheel, smoking hole 
in the armor?

>2) colnies without educated people? Not from the NAC I think. I think
if
>you look at who might want to get off-earth, you may find a lot of
>people who have valuable skills and want to craft a future for

Not with out. But why is a Computer engineer going to move to a 
mining world when he has a very viable job back at New Avalon? Sure 
he may get contracted out, but you aren't going to have 400 Chip 
fabrication specialist that are also Miners.

Certain industries are going to be non existent on smaller colony 
worlds. PERIOD. Eventually they will make it. But it will take time. 
One can extend this sort of idea to certain states.

I can go to North Dakota and find lots of farmers. I won't find a 
factory that fabricates chips. I won't likely find many people that 
can even burn e-proms in their basement work shop either. If I wanted 
to suddenly locate a business in North Dakota to make computers, I'm 
going to have a hard time getting it set up.  I won't have enough 
skilled workers for that industry. I won't have any nearby 
contractors for parts or supplies I'll need. I will be shipping 
harddrives, components, power supplies, CRTs, connectors, memory and 
processors from out side of the country. Sure, I could get cases 
fabricated there easy. But, I could set the same kind of factory up 
in Silicon valley and be set for everything I need, there would be 
local businesses with those fields already set up. Either as brokers 
that bring it in from else where, or items that are made in-situ.

Granted, shipping is cheap, but, if it's so cheap, why aren't there 
computer makers in North Dakota?

>
>3) colony math. Not saying this is right, but think on it. Ever play
>Stars! Computer game? If so, you'll realize their growth model was an S
>curve. For max growth, it was key to get your colonies out of the low
>part of the S quickly. Some players setup small colonies, like the ones
>I think you suggest, and then they slowly grew into sufficiency and the
>faster middle part of the growth curve. Smarter players threw some more
>resources out at the front end to drop critical mass colonies in place
>ready-to-produce and ended up with much higher aggregate population and
>economic growth rates. What does this suggest? That perhaps laying a
>colony out with sufficient people and infrastructure at the front end,
>within a 10 year period say, just makes sense - the returns come in
>larger and sooner. So if a country is paying for the colony, bet that
>such will be the strategy. If a group of people are trying to leave,

During WWII Austrialia and South Africa didn't have sufficient 
industrial base to build many of the things being built in the United 
States. They didn't have the ability to build anything beyond light 
armored vehicles. Austrailia did have one Locomotive foundry as I 
recall and by the time the had finished with their tank design, it'd 
already been surpassed by factory production in the US and in the UK. 
Just ramping up production took long enough that the distance issue 
with shipping them there was easier than making them in-situ. They 
eventually got things working, but the lack of industrial base for 
that particular item was long in coming. Realize this was due to a 
wartime need where there was an enemy just off the coast apparently 
ready to invade.

Austrailia wasn't a struggling colony. They weren't a failing colony. 
They just didn't have the industry present to do that. South Africa 
eventually built her own defense industry, but it took years and lots 
of really hard work to do it. It wasn't a back yard project either.

>4) Brian's point about armament levels in colonies. Let us say I end up
>on a world with flora, but not fauna. And the flora is abundant and not
>terribly threatening. And the colonists are from a peaceable people.
Are
>they likely to be heavily armed? Nope. Of course, pirates and such will
>still be a danger, so some arms will be present. Possibly private
>security or intensive lobbying upon the parent government for adequate
>protection may be a factor too. But not _all_ colonies will be
bristling
>with guns. I think the idea of a Quaker colony or an Amish colony is
>pretty cool. I don't think these will be UberArmedCamps.

You are correct here. Likely there will be some planetary defense 
force of some sort even so. Quakers/Amish will likely be just as 
happy being a small settlement on a larger planet.

--
Ryan Gill	  |	   |	     rmgill@mindspring.com
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