The Ethics of Planetary Colonization (part 1)
The chances of humanity ever discovering and and colonizing another world like ours are rather slim. Obviously, I can't put a figure on it (although I'm betting it'd be higher than some would expect). Still, it is a possibility, and barring the certain fact that humans would have evolved since then (and possibly evolved a new way of thinking about ( Read more... )
Essentially, instead of building ships designed to go from place to place and able to repair themselves only in ports, we build ships designed to build other ships. Massive, yes. Slow, yup.
But instead of "seeding" a planet with a colony, they travel from dead rock to dead rock -- asteroid belts where one should find all the ice and metals one would find planetside without having to fight the massive gravity wells. At the rocks they gather the usable resources and fatten up, leaving when depleted. When bulked up, they orbit suns, set up solar forges, and replicate all the components. One big ship flies in; two fly out. In especially large rock clusters, maybe more than two.
I saw the concept as a means to explore. Other than the replication task, the ships would also beam back travelogues. Smaller exploring bots could do the crawly survey work on gravity well surfaces. I also thought it would be cool if they returned with all that gathered materielle.
Oh, and whether or not people join this multiplying fleet is frankly irrelevant.
Reply
Leave a comment