05-17-2020, 05:00 AM
This AM, I read through the Solar System summary you posted.
I'm also not sure exactly what type of feedback you're looking for here, but will post my general thoughts that came to mind while reading. Due to long habit I am likely to come at this from an OA perspective, although I understand that this is not OA and that you are making different design choices than we have, although you did say this is a hard science setting. I understand that the document is a WIP and so some of this may be resolved as it progresses.
General 'high level' feedback below mostly:
1) Probably the biggest thing that stood out for me across the document are the very high population numbers you give for various places. Mostly due to the short time frame (maybe 500 years?). It feels unlikely that such large numbers of people could be produced in such a short time. Not so much in terms of raw breeding (humans can breed like bunnies under the right circumstances) but:
a) Can this many people be produced in the time between the colonization of a given location and 'now'?
b) Can infrastructure to support this many people be produced be produced fast enough to support the rate of population growth? This is particularly notable for civs in the outer system and Kuiper belt where heavy elements are going to be rare.
c) Why would the colonists want to reproduce at this rate in the first place? They are presumably a high tech civ with access to advanced gengineering and life extension - but they can't produce birth control? High tech/wealthy cultures in RL tend to experience negative or slowed population growth - why is that not happening here?
d) What do all these people do?
2) The overall timeframe doesn't feel long enough to do all the things you describe unless a highly notable (approaching Singularity level) jump in capability occurred early in the timeline. You do mention nanotech and AI and such, but don't really delve into them in a way that makes it feel realistic that (for example) Mars could be fully terraformed in the time available. Things like trying to make artificial black holes and such out on a small body in the outer system also seem far to advanced given everything else described.
3) You talk about fusion and amat-fusion spacecraft a good bit. But are the performance numbers you mention realistic? Virtually all fusion and amat drives I've ever seen described in any level of detail top out around 10% of c or so and you have one pure fusion design apparently hitting 40% of the speed of light, which is better than any fusion drive I've ever heard of except a Bussard ramscoop and those have a host of issues of their own. If you've actually got the numbers on these (or even a good chunk of them) that's great. But then the backing info needs to be provided to help it feel realistic and not just 'numbers pulled from the air'. Waste heat from the drives and the issues with getting rid of it don't seem to be a consideration.
4) You spend some time talking about amat production being theoretical to a rumor but then also talk about the Kuiper civ making raids for antimatter. It seems like the situation could be one or the other but not both at once.
5) You talk about the Kuiper civ using piracy - but that doesn't really make sense to me. If they have the capability to support a high tech civ of 30 billion people in the Kuiper Belt, what could they possibly need from the rest of the solar system that would require pirate raids instead of just direct resource extraction from empty asteroids or the like? Similarly, if they can produce ships that can get from the Kuiper Belt to the rest of the solar system to conduct raids, what could they be needing and what kind of thing would they raid to get enough of whatever to be worth the bother?
6) You mention the Kuiper civ using unique approaches to problem solving but don't explain what that is or what it looks like. But since you called it out, the reader really wants to know what you mean by this and to see examples.
7) You talk about domed cities on Callisto - Note that Callisto (and all the Galilean moons) are inside Jupiter's radiation belt and being on the surface would be distinctly unhealthy. There are various artificial methods that could protect against radiation and you mention gene-tweaking - but not in the case of Callisto and this is a big enough deal it should be mentioned. Callisto's population numbers are another 'why and how?' experience.
8) You mention black hole based torch drives, which I realize there are some papers about - but I don't personally find the idea at all convincing for various reasons I've yet to see answers provided for. A good chunk of the reason why we don't have such drives in OA, although people have asked about them many times over the years. But as you say this is not OA and your setting can certainly work on a different set of starting assumptions (ie Technology X is developed or turns out to be workable in your universe, but doesn't in the OA verse). Just including this for completeness.
9) You mention a nuclear war on Earth and then later an interplanetary war - and it seems to have little or no impact on anything or anyone other than reducing Earth's population a large amount. It seems likely that this would have various other negative consequences that could slow down or curtail things like population growth across the solar system or tech development or the like.
Ok, I think that covers my general thinking on this.
Hope this helps,
Todd
I'm also not sure exactly what type of feedback you're looking for here, but will post my general thoughts that came to mind while reading. Due to long habit I am likely to come at this from an OA perspective, although I understand that this is not OA and that you are making different design choices than we have, although you did say this is a hard science setting. I understand that the document is a WIP and so some of this may be resolved as it progresses.
General 'high level' feedback below mostly:
1) Probably the biggest thing that stood out for me across the document are the very high population numbers you give for various places. Mostly due to the short time frame (maybe 500 years?). It feels unlikely that such large numbers of people could be produced in such a short time. Not so much in terms of raw breeding (humans can breed like bunnies under the right circumstances) but:
a) Can this many people be produced in the time between the colonization of a given location and 'now'?
b) Can infrastructure to support this many people be produced be produced fast enough to support the rate of population growth? This is particularly notable for civs in the outer system and Kuiper belt where heavy elements are going to be rare.
c) Why would the colonists want to reproduce at this rate in the first place? They are presumably a high tech civ with access to advanced gengineering and life extension - but they can't produce birth control? High tech/wealthy cultures in RL tend to experience negative or slowed population growth - why is that not happening here?
d) What do all these people do?
2) The overall timeframe doesn't feel long enough to do all the things you describe unless a highly notable (approaching Singularity level) jump in capability occurred early in the timeline. You do mention nanotech and AI and such, but don't really delve into them in a way that makes it feel realistic that (for example) Mars could be fully terraformed in the time available. Things like trying to make artificial black holes and such out on a small body in the outer system also seem far to advanced given everything else described.
3) You talk about fusion and amat-fusion spacecraft a good bit. But are the performance numbers you mention realistic? Virtually all fusion and amat drives I've ever seen described in any level of detail top out around 10% of c or so and you have one pure fusion design apparently hitting 40% of the speed of light, which is better than any fusion drive I've ever heard of except a Bussard ramscoop and those have a host of issues of their own. If you've actually got the numbers on these (or even a good chunk of them) that's great. But then the backing info needs to be provided to help it feel realistic and not just 'numbers pulled from the air'. Waste heat from the drives and the issues with getting rid of it don't seem to be a consideration.
4) You spend some time talking about amat production being theoretical to a rumor but then also talk about the Kuiper civ making raids for antimatter. It seems like the situation could be one or the other but not both at once.
5) You talk about the Kuiper civ using piracy - but that doesn't really make sense to me. If they have the capability to support a high tech civ of 30 billion people in the Kuiper Belt, what could they possibly need from the rest of the solar system that would require pirate raids instead of just direct resource extraction from empty asteroids or the like? Similarly, if they can produce ships that can get from the Kuiper Belt to the rest of the solar system to conduct raids, what could they be needing and what kind of thing would they raid to get enough of whatever to be worth the bother?
6) You mention the Kuiper civ using unique approaches to problem solving but don't explain what that is or what it looks like. But since you called it out, the reader really wants to know what you mean by this and to see examples.
7) You talk about domed cities on Callisto - Note that Callisto (and all the Galilean moons) are inside Jupiter's radiation belt and being on the surface would be distinctly unhealthy. There are various artificial methods that could protect against radiation and you mention gene-tweaking - but not in the case of Callisto and this is a big enough deal it should be mentioned. Callisto's population numbers are another 'why and how?' experience.
8) You mention black hole based torch drives, which I realize there are some papers about - but I don't personally find the idea at all convincing for various reasons I've yet to see answers provided for. A good chunk of the reason why we don't have such drives in OA, although people have asked about them many times over the years. But as you say this is not OA and your setting can certainly work on a different set of starting assumptions (ie Technology X is developed or turns out to be workable in your universe, but doesn't in the OA verse). Just including this for completeness.
9) You mention a nuclear war on Earth and then later an interplanetary war - and it seems to have little or no impact on anything or anyone other than reducing Earth's population a large amount. It seems likely that this would have various other negative consequences that could slow down or curtail things like population growth across the solar system or tech development or the like.
Ok, I think that covers my general thinking on this.
Hope this helps,
Todd