Humanity leaves earth on seed ships, all in cryostasis. They crash on an earthlike planet or terraform. Humanity's gotta start from scratch.
So what do they do to get into the industrial period? There'd be no coal or petroleum-like substances, would there? What would be the alternatives before reliable solar power, or nuclear power, or what have you?
Could hydroelectric power us through that scenario? What other major differences might occur in the timeline if, say, automobiles became infeasible until wireless energy transfer was developed. (I'm thinking my scifi would have wireless energy transfer, as it would make so many things so much easier).
Maybe the ships power sources have enough juice to get them through that 'dark age'?
check this thread out, it hit on this idea : http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?69406
If it's an earthlike, there would be fossil fuels.
Charcoal can get you pretty far, though automotive tech might be delayed or different.
Quote from: Stargate525If it's an earthlike, there would be fossil fuels.
Charcoal can get you pretty far, though automotive tech might be delayed or different.
that's true, but you can get around this by slightly fudging things, like having coal very rare and hard to get to, or make it a very poor quality.
Quote from: Stargate525If it's an earthlike, there would be fossil fuels.
Charcoal can get you pretty far, though automotive tech might be delayed or different.
Depends how earth-like it was. What if it was the same mass and temperature, and even had water. But for some reason no life? Bam, no fossil fuel.
Quote from: NomadicDepends how earth-like it was. What if it was the same mass and temperature, and even had water. But for some reason no life? Bam, no fossil fuel.
Well then it would have been terraformed, and doesn't fall into the 'natural' exception I made earlier.
Yes, for fossil fuels you need a relatively long period of heavy vegetation, some significant time ago.
Quote from: Stargate525Quote from: NomadicDepends how earth-like it was. What if it was the same mass and temperature, and even had water. But for some reason no life? Bam, no fossil fuel.
Well then it would have been terraformed, and doesn't fall into the 'natural' exception I made earlier.
Yes, for fossil fuels you need a relatively long period of heavy vegetation, some significant time ago.
How would it be terraformed? I could see a world like that arising naturally. Earthlike doesn't necessarily mean it has life.
Quote from: NomadicHow would it be terraformed? I could see a world like that arising naturally. Earthlike doesn't necessarily mean it has life.
What I meant was it would need to be terraformed to actually support human life (massive importation of a vegetation base, for instance), and you not have oil.
Quote from: Stargate525Quote from: NomadicHow would it be terraformed? I could see a world like that arising naturally. Earthlike doesn't necessarily mean it has life.
What I meant was it would need to be terraformed to actually support human life (massive importation of a vegetation base, for instance), and you not have oil.
Nonsense, just have the seed ships handle that. Give them greenhouses and the settlers are able to create enough food to live without mass terraforming. You could even have them carry animal populations to supplement the whole thing (actually since plenty of food plants require pollination that would make sense... plus honey is delicious). There would be a natural spreading of life as the settlers spread out, taking their plants with them (and the animals inevitable spreading as the plants spread).
Quote from: NomadicNonsense, just have the seed ships handle that. Give them greenhouses and the settlers are able to create enough food to live without mass terraforming. You could even have them carry animal populations to supplement the whole thing (actually since plenty of food plants require pollination that would make sense... plus honey is delicious). There would be a natural spreading of life as the settlers spread out, taking their plants with them (and the animals inevitable spreading as the plants spread).
*Sigh*
Quote from: DictionaryTerraform: To transform the atmosphere (or biosphere) of another planet into one having the characteristics of Earth.
Emphasis mine.
Quote from: Stargate525Quote from: NomadicNonsense, just have the seed ships handle that. Give them greenhouses and the settlers are able to create enough food to live without mass terraforming. You could even have them carry animal populations to supplement the whole thing (actually since plenty of food plants require pollination that would make sense... plus honey is delicious). There would be a natural spreading of life as the settlers spread out, taking their plants with them (and the animals inevitable spreading as the plants spread).
*Sigh*
Quote from: DictionaryTerraform: To transform the atmosphere (or biosphere) of another planet into one having the characteristics of Earth.
QuoteTerraforming (literally, "Earth-forming") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by terran organisms.
Emphasis mine. Note how my example had life expanding as a natural result of human settlement spread, not deliberate planning. Not to mention that second part was only expounding upon the primary point found in the first part, that you could support human populations without terraforming as long as the planet's temperature, gravity, atmosphere, and water levels were similar to earths.