Re: COLONIAL WEAPONS

Scott Clinton wrote:

> I find it hard to accept that in 2150 "empires" will go to the trouble
of
> FTL traveling to other solar systems, mapping, preparing, recruiting,
> outfitting, training and transporting colonists...just to abandon them
with
> steam engines and 200+ year old technology.  Sorry, I just don't see
the
> economics in it myself.  Now, if you want to say they are penal
colonies,
> thats another matter (actually there are cheaper ways of doing that
too).

Remember the assumption that it it costs a lot to send to send an empty
starship
somewhere.  The other assumption is that even full starships are
expensive, if
they are not large.  If travel times are low (crossing explored space
takes less
than a month), and first class mail between far-flung worlds costs
twenty
minutes at minimum wage, the colonies will have ships pssing several
times a
year, so spares can always be ordered.	If travel times are long, and
cargo
costs do not get affordable below a million tonnes, the colony will not
be
visited until they can be expected to fill the holds.  There are further
difficulties if the only way to send FTL messages is to hand carry them
on FTL
ships.

Larry Niven's "Known Space" milieu has several stories that examine some
of the
problems of long voyage times.	Constrained by lightspeed, the only
thing worth
sending is information.  Colonies were dropped off with everything that
could be
provided, and cannibalised the ship to kickstart their industry.  An
emergency
request sent back to the homeworld could not be answered in a human
lifetime,
but you could at least warn the next wave of colonists (if there should
be one).

Steam engines are not low tech, and they are still state-of-the-art for
electricity production.  Chemically powered slug throwers are very
effective,
and they are simple.  You want to send appropriate technology for the
expected
conditions.  When these conditions include little or no contact with the