Walter Bright wrote:
BCS wrote:
the story I want to puzzle out is that a group of a few thousand
people get dropped on a planet with an indestructible encyclopedic
reference, really good geological maps and their birthday suits. I've
wondered how long it would take to get into back into space. If they
can keep society together, I'd bet it would be under 100 years, it
might even be under a generation.
Most of them would promptly die. The reference will be missing all kinds
of woodcraft that is necessary to survive, but nobody found worthwhile
to record. (The Firefox series of books is an attempt to record those
old techniques before they were lost forever.)
Foxfire, not Firefox. There are about twelve volumes, each roughly as
long as a Wheel of Time novel.
Most of the instructions in the encyclopedia will be useless, because
they'll require non-existent precursor technology. How to build those
precursors probably will not be recorded.
Assuming that the encyclopedia is not lacking in that regard, building
the prerequisite technologies could take quite some time.
Then the people will have to have a very fast attitude adjustment, and
many will die in that process. Take a look at the sad history of Jamestown.
The Battlestar Galactica finale where they just sent all their tech into
the sun and went native is a romantic delusion.
Thanks for ruining it for me! (Actually, thanks. I was never going to
watch it anyway.)
