Help needed! - A Browncoat in distress!

POSTED BY: UVnet
UPDATED: Sunday, February 11, 2007 01:55
VIEWED: 5095
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6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, February 10, 2007 3:27 PM

Browncoats are pretty damn cool people. I think we just managed to say 1 thing about 8 different ways. Great minds think alike!

Tell your boy to put that in his pipe and smoke it.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

DONCOAT

Saturday, February 10, 2007 4:11 PM

I vote for the fuel problem as the most significant.

Assuming that the colony has been seeded with grasses and scrub plants, horses are self-fueling and self-manufacturing.

But hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles are another matter. You'd need either a large agribusiness infrastructure (to grow crops like cane or maize to turn into fuels, which would make them unavailable for other purposes) or some sort of fossil fuel resource.

But we're talking about terraformed worlds that never had indigenous life. No life, no fossil fuels. Here's a tip: don't bother shipping a drilling rig to the Moon -- you're not going to strike any black gold under the Mare Tranquilitatis.

So, you're either going to burn up a large fraction of your agricultural output, or you'll have to ship a lot of fuel in from somewhere else. Neither of those makes sense for a struggling colony.
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I'm pointin' right at it!

MORWEN112

Sunday, February 11, 2007 1:17 AM

Another note about horses and fuel-

Horse waste can be used as fuel for fires. Pioneers traveling on the American plains in the 19th century couldn't find much wood for fires, so they used the waste from oxen and buffalo. Horse waste would be pretty similar, since they eat the same sort of thing.

Speaking as one who works with and around horses a lot, I have to say that I would much rather be dumped on a terraformed moon with a few horses than a few of those high-tech things. Horses take care of themselves, reproduce themselves and are also some of the most loyal and intelligent animal companions you could ever hope to have.

Mine is an evil sugar high laugh! Bwahahahaha!

Morwen

KAYLEEGIRL

Sunday, February 11, 2007 1:42 AM

I'd say it is pretty simple: what about our world? Is there any logical reason for any of us to still be riding horses? We still do -- and for all the same reasons the others have come up with to prove it's logical in the FF 'verse. People just like horses and always will. (They're much better company than cars, etc.)

The more things change, the more they stay the same is all.

If I'm gonna dream, I'm gonna dream big.

CAUSAL

Sunday, February 11, 2007 1:51 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by KayleeGirl:
I'd say it is pretty simple: what about our world? Is there any logical reason for any of us to still be riding horses? We still do -- and for all the same reasons the others have come up with to prove it's logical in the FF 'verse. People just like horses and always will.

Well, yeah, but I gotta think that settlers are going to have more on their mind that what sorts of animals they like--for instance, survival. And I'm thinking that liking horses (which is easy to understand, mind you) is going to be way less important than the utility of the horse.

My $0.02.

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MYCROFT2

Sunday, February 11, 2007 1:55 AM

Since your friend is a hardcore Scifi fan, the reasoning for horses on colonies on other worlds
was said best by Robert A. Heinlein:

"Horses can make more horses, and that’s a trick tractors have never learned."

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