[TML] Lower-tech colonies

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 7/15/08 12:55 PM, "Grimmund" <grimmund at gmail.com> wrote:

> Infrastructure.  First the colony needs power, then raw materials,
> then manufacturing facilities to build "stuff".
> 
> It will likely be cheaper (short term) to import a lot of high tech
> "stuff" from the homeworld rather than build high-tech factories on
> the colony world.
> 
> For example, it would be relatively easy to assemble grav vehicles on
> the colony at TL 8, using imported fusion plants, grav modules, and
> maybe avionics and computers.  The Japanese do that now, building many
> of their cars in the USA using a mix of domestic American parts and
> imported Japanese engines and powertrains.
> 
> One step further:  If you've got a supply of steel, it's relatively
> easy to make stuff from it.  If you don't have steel, you need an iron
> mine, a coal mine, a smelter, and a mill, before you can make steel.
> It *may* be easier, initially, to just import the steel, or import the
> products, rather than trying to build all the infrastructure from
> scratch.

Initially, yes, it's cheaper to import than to build up.  But that same
logic applies to the TL 8 stuff the colony has been given.  But the same
argument could be made for TL 7, 6, etc.  Logically, this takes you to
having *no* native infrastructure and importing everything.

But past the short term, that's a bad idea, for lots of reasons.