If there are no other technological civilizations, then they are impossible.
If there is no FTL, then they are improbable.
If there is no FTL and if technological civilizations are rare, then they are improbable verging on impossible.
What would there be to fight about over such distances?
The Ai Chun in Poul Anderson's World Without Stars and the Aleriona in his The Star Fox have very old static cultures and are genetically incapable of tolerating engulfment by a younger, dynamic species. The Alori in Anderson's The Peregrine have an organically based culture that cannot tolerate engulfment by a mechanically oriented civilization. The Merseian Roidhunate in Anderson's Technic History is racially supremacist and cannot tolerate any species that remain independent of it.
In James Blish's future histories, there are mainly imperialistic relationships between interstellar civilizations. In one branch of his Haertel Scholium:
2 comments:
It all depends on transit times and costs.
The faster the transits and the lower the cost, the more likely conflict is.
For example, the SpaceX Starship will be able to make it to Mars in about 80-100 days depending on the orbital positions.
That's because it can refuel in orbit; and of course it would need to be able to refuel on Mars.
Which is why it uses methane as the fuel, btw; you can manufacture methane from the Martian atmosphere with solar energy.
(They plan to do that on Earth, too, eventually.)
At those speeds, conflict between Earth or part thereof and the eventual Martian state would be possible but awkward. Wars have been fought at that sort of distance in time/money before.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Of course conflicts will be possible off Earth, whether in the Solar System or at interstellar distances. As Stirling said, "It all depends on transit times and costs."
I expect conflicts will be about merely material things, like the unique metals found on Mirkheim or about ideas and ideologies, such as the racial supremacism of the Merseian Roidhunate.
Mr. Stirling: I love what you wrote about SpaceX's Starship! I hadn't really dared to hope it might be possible for a space ship to get to Mars in 80 to 100 days in the fairly near future.
And, IIRC, Robert Zubrin discussed how methane could be used as a fuel by space ships in his books.
Ad astra! Sean
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