The Colony Ship project. Help me build my ship!

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by henriquefd, Jan 13, 2010.

  1. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    By way of disclosure, in case it's not obvious, that is a thinly altered version of Monty Python's Architect Sketch (the start of it, at any rate). It was Tony Jacklin in the original and Tony Jacklin it remains.
     
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  3. fedr808 1100101 Valued Senior Member

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    yah, it struck the chord in my brain labelled "what the f*ck?!?"
     
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  5. henriquefd Registered Member

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    I think you misinterpreted what I wrote. Nowhere in my post it says this is going to be a military colony.

    What I meant to say is that this is not Battlestar Galactica. There is no government or president inside the ship. The mission of taking the civilians to another planet is a joint-military mission. I would agree that if those were the last survivors of the human race, like in Battlestar Galactica, then yes, things would be different. But this is not the case.

    Now, once they arrive at the planet, the military is not running the show anymore. Then the civilians will run the show, ellect their representatives and found a new society from scratch. This is not going to be a military colony. But the military runs the mission of taking the civilians to the planet. Meaning that, while inside the ship, they run the show, as you would expect it even in a Cruise Ship.

    Maybe it is a little confusing because I dont want to give away much of the plot yet.
     
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  7. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    I see, I was misinterpreting. I thought the colony was going to be on the ship, as a "generation ship," rather than the ship serving, in effect, as a sort of interstellar moving van.
     
  8. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    Actually I do have one suggestion. Instead of disposing the bodies into outerspace, recycling them in the oxygen garden will help you lengthen the trip. It would also give people a nice place to "commune" with their loved ones.
     
  9. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Ah yes, the benevolent military leader who runs the mission for 5+ years and has complete and utter autonomy, is suddenly going to abdicate his power to a civilian person while he (the military leader) retains control of all the military hardware.

    Of course, while the military leader might say "oh yes - I'll hand back power" there will always be one excuse after another not to do so.

    It is different if the military leader remains accountable to a higher authority that can exercise power over him - but the colony is far enough away to make reaction from Earth etc rather remote.


    Also - why should there be military control on the 5+ year trip?
    You've got 800 civilians - they will have their own government on board... of sorts. And their wishes/requests would need to be heard.
    Afterall, the purpose of the mission is the colonists. And there's not exactly much that can be done en-route - surely the trip is a "point and click" affair (unless emergency springs up?).
    Lastly - presumably the 800 civilians and crew will be hand-picked after rigourous psycho-evaluations - so the likelihood of actually needing anything military is remote.

    In summary - in my view there would be no reason for this mission, or ship, or any of the personnel, to be military. Sure, a squad of combat-trained personnel would be good in event of emergency, but that would be secondary to their main purpose (whatever civilian occupation they might have) but military equipment (weapons etc) would be under control of an elected leader. The ship's safety and operation would be under the direction of the ship's Captain of course but his remit would end there - anything affecting the ship's passengers would ideally need to be decided by their "elected" leaders.

    Anything else - e.g. military vessel / military rule etc - is a recipe for disaster.
    Furthermore, the military personnel would also be colonists - I'm sure they wouldn't be there as part of a job, with the expectation of a return journey?? This is a one-way trip, right? So this further cuts down the need for the ship to operate under any military remit.

    Just my opinion, though.

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  10. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    Also, what physical conflicts are being expected here? Are there hostile alien species that wer routinely come to blows with? When colonies were established in the New World, the military didn't lead the way. When the Old World wanted to pillage the New World, the military led the way, but then they went home. Colonists often formed militaries (militias) to deal with local threats, but that was genearally an ad hoc affair.

    I assume there must be known hostile species and a reasonable chance of armed conflict, or else all you really need is a "police" force to settle issues with the colonists and in rare instances defend from external threats, rather than a military force that always dominates.

    That is different than saying the captain should not control the ship. If you go on a cruise ship, the captain and his officers have control of the ship, biut obviously they fall short of being "military".
     

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