"A few score - a few hundred at absolute maximum, if the ship had been rigged with suspended-animation lockers - could not preserve a full-fledged civilization while coping with a planet for which man was never meant."
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 729.
This tells us that the civilization of the Commonalty has suspended animation although we have no reason to believe that the Terran Empire did. The Commonalty still uses the type of hyperdrive that is detectable within a light year by its instantaneous space-pulses but has immensely improved the quality of its spaceship computers.
That seems to be it for our knowledge of technological advances from Empire to Commonalty.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think earlier ages, including that of the Empire, knew of suspended animation. But there was one HUGE reason why there was seldom any use made of it: the hyperdrive. Given a practical FTL means of traveling among the stars, what need would there be for suspended animation?
Sean
Sean,
Do you know where there is an earlier reference to suspended animation?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Now I'm unsure. I thought mention was made of the Kraoka and Alfzarians using suspended animation in "A Sun Invisible" and "Honorable Enemies." I checked but I saw no mention of these races using suspended animation.
There's also A CIRCUS OF HELLS. The Domrath and Ruadrath, the two intelligent races of Talwin, use hibernation and estivation to survive certain parts of Talwin's year. These are a kind of suspended animation.
I can only fall back on what seems logical: suspended animation was known but seldom used.
Sean
The main reason for using suspended animation would be to pack more passengers in on an emergency basis than could be carried awake and using the ship's life-support mechanisms. McCormick's rebels didn't have much time to set up their exodus.
I think the Kirkasanter's ancestors must have been separated from the main fleet, too. I got the impression that thousands would be leaving.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree, after Dominic Flandry seized the code used by McCormac's fleet, his rebellion was broken. Admiral Pickens would not give McCormac the time needed for a new code to be developed. Flandry warned McCormac of this to force him to flee the Empire.
Yes, I think at least several thousand ex-rebels and their families formed the migration. And I don't think they would have the time needed for elaborate schemes for using suspended animation for hundreds of persons.
We agree, it seems! The ancestors of the Kirkasanters stemmed from a ship which separated from McCormac's fleet, either because it got lost or because the officers and crew quarreled with the main flotilla.
And we don't know where the main body of McCormac ex-rebels eventually settled!
Sean
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