RE: Re: starship-design: scoops and sails and something topush against.

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

Kelly,

> I was saying that colonies don't last long, and seldom are
> started, without a
> practical economic reason for there being there.  Same way lots
> of the US is
> being abandoned since their not much economic draw for it.
>
> This was in responce to the suggestion from some one that we
> would go out and
> found colonies just because.

Ahh, okay. I understand now. And I was pointing out how colonies didn't just
"start", they began with fishing camps (an economic justification). Without
going into boring historical detail, we are both right, we're just not
talking about quite the same thing.

In fact, there were "causes" behind most of the colonies. I was just
pointing out that they were usually preceded by advanced scouts (the
fishermen in most cases, but not all) and were attempting to reach some
haven which they had been told was exceptionally attractive. Unfortunately,
many of them went off course and ended up settling somewhere besides where
they had originally intended, or their "causes" disappeared (frequently
political causes) and the colony subsequently foundered.

You were just taking exception to fishing camps being considered
colonies...which they weren't.

Incidentally, the ones that survived were mostly private ventures of one
variety or another and although they frequently had difficult times at the
beginning they mostly survived because conditions at their landing point
were close to ideal and their cause held up.

There may be lessons here for would be colonists of the planets and other
stars...

Lee