Space Colony

[Lush City]

You can't vote in polls on cell phones.

[Bagder Man 22]

Then get a computer.

[Yuu]

We're not exactly reaching four billion people any time soon Yuu.

Yes, because by the time we reach four billion, the planet's rock dry surface would have magically turned to water by then.

The point is, we should only develop this planet to a point where our water-recycling capabilities can still support the population using the local resources. Recycling CO₂ and waste water can only get you so far when the colony's population eventually expands, even if it does take whoever knows how long.

Think of it this way: The number of consumers (humans) will steadily increase while the number of products (H₂O O₂) will not. Eventually, what you will get is a massive number of people trying to divide the few resources that are left. Sounds familiar? It was most likely the same reason why the colony was made in the first place, because despite how good people were at recycling the resources on the Blue Marble, the population eventually outweighed the resources necessary to sustain it.^[1]

Recycling =/= Ex Nihilo

Now, we can say "Why not just do the same and send out our own colonies, or mine nearby asteroids, in case there's few water here?" The problem with that is that we're still not sure when we'll be able to make a functioning space program.

Now, if we were to find a large enough amount of H₂O on the planet, or if for some reason, these future people are actually capable of transmuting rock into water using a fission-fusion process, then by all means spread and multiply. 

But until then, let's keep the population at the medium to bare minimum level required for running the preliminary operations. 


In any case, the four billion thing was mostly sarcasm anyway. Several million would, judging by what the landers look like, be enough to make our current water supply insufficient for our needs.


^[1]Note the term "most likely." Not a 100% precise conclusion, as only Hydro has the final say.


Ps. Thanks for the explanation regarding tornadoes. It was enlightening. 

[Raz]

You're also assuming there aren't going to be population controls in place, since a extraterrestrial colony is probably going to be very restricted in terms of how many children are allowed, etc.

[Didero]

Before we send out another colony pod lander, we should have the exploration rover to check out the sites, so we can pick the best one. Let's first send it west, so we can check out the mineral-rich red site. We should also build a construction rover, since that's useful for later, and a mineral storage, so the factory doesn't have to wait for the rover each time.
So send exploration rover out exploring west, and set factory to build construction rover. The mineral storage will have to wait for the next turn, unless we can stack orders.

[Haseri]

It would be useful to have a list of the things the factory can produce in the first post or something, with a short description of what they do.

[Yuu]

You're also assuming there aren't going to be population controls in place, since a extraterrestrial colony is probably going to be very restricted in terms of how many children are allowed, etc.

I guess you could attribute that to the amount of faith I have regarding the effectiveness of population control, people being very insistent on what they want and all. To be honest, I actually wanted the AI to first successfully build several fully-sized cities, if not terraform the planet, before it even unfreezes a single human being.

In the end, my decision depends on what the general attitudes of these future people are like. If Hydro can post a short description of their general level of discipline back home regarding things like family planning, environmental conservation and rebelliousness,¹ it would really shed some light on how we should deal with regulating the population's movements, or if our intervention would even be effective at all.


¹We can never be so sure. For all we know, the lottery winners, the group most likely to be the least conditioned of the bunch, might suddenly start a secession movement, peaceful or otherwise.


There's just so many things that could possibly go wrong compared to the benefits that humans will add into the system if they were unfrozen so early in the life of the colonization effort. Free will and human nature are very dangerous things, especially in a very tight ship, which is in itself very damaging to culture and morale if not used sparingly.

[Raz]

Perhaps we should jettison the lottery winners or turn them into food 

[Lush City]

The Lottory Winners would also be the least capable of Rebellion. Were talkingg oil barrons, trophy wives and heiresses here. Really they serve no purpose other than breeding stock, and we have plenty of that. We could probably just keep them frozen and be done with it.

[Hydromancerx]

Episode 10

Exploration Rover is heading Northwest. No minerals or water found. Continuing to explore Northwest.

Factory set to build Construction Rover. Cannot create construction rover. Processed minerals needed. Awaiting processed minerals.

Mining bot has minerals available. Waiting further instructions.

Poll Choices
1. Launch Colony Pod Lander #2 to Red Site.
2. Launch Colony Pod Lander #2 to Blue Site.
3. Launch Colony Pod Lander #2 to Yellow Site.
4. Launch Colony Pod Lander #2 to Green Site.
5. Save Colony Pod Lander #2 as Backup. (Never Launch unless an Emergency)
6. Set Mining Bot to Automatically Drop off Minerals at Smelter. (Takes 2 turns for drop off and return to mining site)
7. Assign Exploration Rover to Automatically Transport Minerals from Mining Site to Smelter (Take 1 turn to drop off and leave the mining bot to mine. But keep exploration rover from exploring).
8. Access Factory Production Data.
9. Access Cultural Data.

[Raz]

This is becoming a little ridiculous Hydro, offering commands that can't be processed and stuff.

[Lush City]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Hydromancerx]

This is becoming a little ridiculous Hydro, offering commands that can't be processed and stuff.

No, it will happen when it gets the processed minerals. Otherwise it would receive processed minerals and no know what to make from them. In short you do not have to command the factory again until it has created the Construction Rover.

[Bagder Man 22]

Hydro, if we cant do something yet then odds are we want to get the things to allow us to do it. Just a thought.

[Yuu]

I think I know what Hydro's getting at: The other kits, like the storage one, are mostly just upgrades to speed things up, and can readily be set aside at the cost of efficiency.