With regards to http://legalsmeagolandzeteticelench.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/fan-theories-2.html and http://legalsmeagolandzeteticelench.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/a-few-statistics-on-culture.html perhaps the first Orbital builders were part of a conglomerate representing several panhuman civilisations.
They could have any number of reasons for doing so: to make a gigantic point about inter-civilizational co-operation, as experimental art, as well as providing extra living space.
The point about Orbitals, from the perspective of an expanding and militarily suspicious civilisation, is that they are individually much easier to defend from space than a planet is. One can simply provide sensors throughout the base structure of an Orbital alongside a Hub or ship stationed at its exact centre.
A planet would need to be surrounded by satellites or otherwise guarded by at least six warships. An enemy could simply play hide-and-seek against a single sentinel. Two Orbital Plates by themselves also provide greater living space than a dozen planets would and each would each take as long* to construct as it would to terraform a single planet.
For these reasons it might make sense for a peaceful Orbital-building civilisation to come into conflict with an aggressive, hegemonic Orbital-building civilisation, or one which wishes to steal its technology. The parent civilisations of the Orbital-builders may distance themselves from their prodigious offspring for fear of conflict with one of these empires. The Orbital-builders would then be forced to request humanitarian and military aid from another society: a society such as the space-based civilisation Banks describes**. Over time, and the construction of many Orbitals, a distinct Culture develops.
*Terraforming a planet to Culture human standards is supposed to take a century, the same time it takes to construct the first two opposing Plates that make up an Orbital.
** In the essay a few notes on the Culture
They could have any number of reasons for doing so: to make a gigantic point about inter-civilizational co-operation, as experimental art, as well as providing extra living space.
The point about Orbitals, from the perspective of an expanding and militarily suspicious civilisation, is that they are individually much easier to defend from space than a planet is. One can simply provide sensors throughout the base structure of an Orbital alongside a Hub or ship stationed at its exact centre.
A planet would need to be surrounded by satellites or otherwise guarded by at least six warships. An enemy could simply play hide-and-seek against a single sentinel. Two Orbital Plates by themselves also provide greater living space than a dozen planets would and each would each take as long* to construct as it would to terraform a single planet.
For these reasons it might make sense for a peaceful Orbital-building civilisation to come into conflict with an aggressive, hegemonic Orbital-building civilisation, or one which wishes to steal its technology. The parent civilisations of the Orbital-builders may distance themselves from their prodigious offspring for fear of conflict with one of these empires. The Orbital-builders would then be forced to request humanitarian and military aid from another society: a society such as the space-based civilisation Banks describes**. Over time, and the construction of many Orbitals, a distinct Culture develops.
*Terraforming a planet to Culture human standards is supposed to take a century, the same time it takes to construct the first two opposing Plates that make up an Orbital.
** In the essay a few notes on the Culture
Comments
Post a Comment