Van Rijn remembers that, fifty years previously, a Utopian group had colonized a planet, which they called Leandra, of a late type G star. They wanted and achieved distance from everyone else and traveled once a year in their single ship to buy goods from
Ifri or
Llynathawr. Leandra was too far away for anyone else to travel there to trade, which was what the colonists had wanted. When nothing was heard from the Leandrans for a while, someone investigated, finding the single village burned and the ship gone. Had a natural fire destroyed their crops and stores so that they had gone for help and come to grief in space? Or had the Shenna killed most of the colonists, started the fire to cover the evidence and brought up a few children as slaves?
Such Utopian groups had been common. Although Poul Anderson was no Utopian, he valued human diversity and welcomed the prospect of multiple cultures flourishing on different planets. If we had the space to build whatever Utopian schemes could be devised, then (I think) some would succeed while, of course, also adapting to unforeseen environments and events.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree! While Poul Anderson was not in the least a Utopian, he would have wished well of the Leandrans and hoped they would have prospered.
The Leandrans seemed to have been fairly typical of many groups on Earth as the Interstellar Age opened, feeling themselves smothered and oppressed on Earth, so some took off for other worlds to live as they pleased.
Sean
I doubt a group as small as the Leandrans could be viable on its own... though there's some speculation, backed up by DNA evidence, that the original founding population of the Amerinds was very small, 500 or so.
But to be viable a population like that would have to grow very fast -- doubling every 25 years or so -- and also experience heavy selective pressure. Though the Technic age might have means of eliminating the consequences of a limited gene pool without rigorous culling.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
You made clearer to me why I was feeling some doubts about the Leandrans. I was thinking that only one town or village seemed rather small for the founders of a colony. I think their population could have grown rapidly if the Leandrans belonged to a religious group which disapproved of contraceptive drugs and devices. And we do see mention, in THE GAME OF EMPIRE, of Technic medical technology being able to correct or eliminate various genetically caused disorders. Services the Leandrans might have made use of if the Shenna had not destroyed their colony.
Sean
The other disadvantage with small size is vulnerability to disasters -- that's why it's plausible that something else besides violence could have wiped the Leandrans out, which makes the Shen raid possible. Though the Shen tend to be extremely reckless and impulsive, probably due to their very recent origin.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree. The Leandrans should have planned their colony more carefully, AND founded at least five or six townd, with at least two interstellar space ships. And have at least the rudiments of a military force.
Sean
True, but they probably couldn't afford to do so. I had the impression they were operating on a shoestring -- the planet hadn't had nearly as much research done on it to avoid all sorts of unpleasant surprises (ecological ones, for instance). They were taking risks deliberately because otherwise they couldn't do it at all.
Hi,
It is possible to deduce so much from so little in fictional texts!
Paul.
Dear Mr. Stirling and Paul,
Mr. Stirling: that makes sense, the Leandrans were gambling that their corner cutting would not be fatal to them. Alas, it was!
Paul: I agree! One example I thought was the note I pieced together from the too references to the widow of Emperor Georgios.
Sean
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