Re: colony size was 1900's

----- Original Message -----
From: <KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: colony size was 1900's

> Don M schrieb:
> > From: K.H.Ranitzsch <KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de>
>
> Well, in this whole thread, very little has been said about actual
coly
> sizes. My impression was that most people on this thread thought in
> terms of wilderness planets with very thinly scattered populations.
>
Yes it works for games but in real life I think and earth like planet
well be pulsed up with people (the one resource we are never short
of) very quickly.

> Well, at medieval technology levels, a settlement of a few dozen
people
> is basically self-sustaining (assuming an earthlike environment),
> though prone to be wiped out by local catastrophes. A single
settlement
> of 5.000 to 10.000 people is quite a large town, and hardly
> self-sustaining. It will require food brought in from surrounding
> areas.
>
Lots of robotics....

> However, spreading 200.000 people over a whole planet AND assuming
> high-tech industry implies very easy transportation and
communications.
> I don't see a viable infrastructure or vehicle industry within that
> framework.
>
 These are the initial numbers I think a million plus would happen in a
very
short time.

> 200.000 people in a reasonably compact area (a US state or European
> country, at most) might be more plausible.
>
At first yes but radiating out rather quickly, and there will be
settlements
in different areas initially just because of minerals and other raw
materials.
The main problem with all the theories on colonization is we need to
tera-form the place first. I suggest that if we find a planet that is
earth
like
humans will spread out....orders be damned...)