[GZG] RE: Colonial tech level [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

I would think it convenient to assume that colony planets would have a tech
level 20-30 years behind the homeworld (presuming travel is less than 6
months - multiply appropriately for longer travel times).

This would take into account things such as the education base required to
service the latest technology and "dumping" of older (2nd hand) production
equipment by corporations.

At some point, the colony would realise that they can start competing with the
homeworld and may even surpass the homeworld technology in a short period of
time. This inevitably leads to some sort of civil
war/secessionist movement in most fiction.

It seems feasable that planets "might" earn currency from the homeworld by
supplying troops. Personally, I think it more likely that the homeworld would
be required to supply garrison forces to the colony, as the colonists are
going to be more interested in becoming sustainable than losing their
production population to foreign adventures that are irrelevant to local
politics.

Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernsk/

> -----Original Message-----
<snip>
> So a colony planet may be able to have 1% of its population

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> From: john tailby

I'm sure that there will be studies on "given a ship with 1,000,000 ton
capacity, how much should be devoted to colonists and how much to gear?"
There's no particular reason it should be "every colonist gets one suitcase of
gear".

And bear in mind that colonies won't necessarily be started just for the sake
of founding a colony. It's at least as likely that they'll be put in place to
exploit a resource, eg a mining camp, and the "self sustaining" part will grow
up around it.