[OT] [I mean totally OT] Re: What can you "new"

[BCS]

Hello Daniel,

> BCS wrote:
> 
>> Hello Walter,
>> 
>>> This would all make for a great scifi story!
>>> 
>> the story I want to puzzle out is that a group of a few thousand
>> people get dropped on a planet with an indestructible encyclopedic
>> reference,
>> 
> You mean a ruggedised Kindle 2 a.k.a. the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
> Galaxy version 0.1?
> 
>> really good geological maps
>> 
> Here's hoping Google Earth has that planet, then.  :P
> 

That to, but I was thinking of minral maps for finding ore.

>> and their birthday suits. I've wondered how
>> long it would take to get into back into space. If they can keep
>> society
>> together, I'd bet it would be under 100 years, it might even be under
>> a
>> generation.
> Without a supply of food, not long, I'd imagine.  Assuming your list
> of materials is complete, they'd have to figure out what's edible,
> then hunt and gather their food for at least as long as it takes them
> to figure out what they can grow, and then grow it.

I'd argue that working out the food supply is a prerqueset to keeping society 
together

> 
> Then there's the question of whether these people are skilled, or just
> a few thousand random people off the street.
> 

Most of the work would be skilled labor and when know how to teach that fairly 
well. For the rest it wouldn't take much luck for a sampling of 5000 people 
to to include several doctors, engineers, some framers, a few scientists 
and some programmers. Besides, it a story, I can make my own luck. 

> Not to mention that to get into space they'd need a hell of a lot of
> things.  Even with written knowledge of how to do it, I don't imagine
> it would be an easy thing to do.
> 

If it were easy, it wouldn't make a good story.

> -- Daniel
>