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Date Posted: 12:13:03 10/07/02 Mon
Author: Robert
Subject: Very nice treatment (Spoilers through 3rd aired ep)
In reply to: Grant 's message, "Re: Okay, how dumb are we supposed to be? (Spoilers through 3rd aired ep)" on 11:54:21 10/06/02 Sun

I think you are correct in your analysis. In addition, it is a fairly well used theme in the science fiction literature to have a frontier colony planet revert to low technology (such as fire for lighting and animals instead of machines). R. A. Heinlein in his novel "Time Enough for Love" had a section of the novel take place on a planet with an old west motif. If a colony is at the end of a very long supply line, it is inevitable that the colony cannot sustain high technology. Part of reverting to low technology is that the clothing will now be weaved on hand mills and sewn by hand.

Imagine if we somehow removed every semiconductor factory from the Earth. How long would we be able to maintain our technology? Could we fall back to electron tubes? Well yes, but you can't built a real computer with electron tubes.

>>> "As for the chinese clothes,... "

Actually, I think that chinese clothes would work well in the old west motif. How many chinese laborers were imported to California before the 20th century?

>>> "Once the society advances enough that mere survival is no longer the issue, then things will balance out."

True, but not easily. No social class ever surrenders power easily.

>>> "And as for how Saffron got into the settlement, I always just assumed that she showed up during the party."

It would be relatively easy since the settlers did not know the ship's crew and vice versa. It is difficult to crash a party where everyone knows everyone else.

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