"Somewhere in the unexplored deeps beyond Valhalla, the fugitives had settled on some unknown planet. Over the generations, their numbers grew, and so did the numbers of their warships." (p. 565)
How many generations between settling a planet and producing new spacecraft, let alone warships? The same question arises in James Blish's Cities In Flight where, no sooner have the Colonials settled extra-solar planets, than, with no help from Earth, they are engaged in a war against the Vegan Tyranny.
In "Wings of Victory," the backwoods colony of Hermes is temporarily primitive because it has not yet received shippings of agricultural machinery. The fugitives in "Hiding Place" would not have received any shippings from their home planet of Freya.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
If we go by my revision of Meisel's Chronology, the hyperdrive was probably invented around AD 2100 or a bit later. With the events in "Hiding Place" occurring around the 2470's. If we assume the Addercops settled their planet at least two centuries before, that would seem to give them the needed to build up a fleet.
Ad astra! Sean
Depends on how many the fugitives are. Faced with an open land frontier and a good disease environment, humans often double every generation; and that's a geometric increase.
Also, with far-future equivalents of 3-d printers, already in increasing use, manufacturing basics wouldn't require a huge labor force.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, if things work out just right for the Addercops. I should mention wondering, tho, if their descendants would still want to be interstellar pirates after all that time and work developing their new home? After two centuries or so, wouldn't there be social and political changes discouraging piracy?
Ad astra! Sean
It was the manufacturing capacity that I was concerned about but I think that that point has been answered.
Kaor, Paul!
As you said, Stirling answered that question.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, sorta answered. Eg., you still have to produce the raw and semi-processed materials for the spaceships, and assemble them, but yeah, in a sufficiently advanced setting, this can probably be done with a quite small populationm.
Eg., the reason mass production is cheaper is that it enables you to use specialized machine-tools and limited amounts of highly-skilled machinist labor.
But with 3-D and similar techniques, you can get assembly-line economies of scale even with limited runs or one-off products.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And if our civilization manages to hold together even a few more decades, we might get to that stage.
And, in 200 years, I can imagine outlaws and renegades similar to the Addercops being able to carry this off, if given the means you outlined.
Ad astra! Sean
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