ClassicDrogn Wrote:Until they can reach 100% energy and life support self-sufficiency, scarcity is physical fact - lost atmo from puffs that can't quite be pumped out of the airlock before opening it and the power burned need to be replaced, if nothing else, and that's with perfect recycling. There's a lot more empty space than anything else, supplies have to come from somewhere and be handled by somebody, and that somebody will want something in return, even if just an exchange of favors. Doesn't mean it has to be grim, thoWaved solar panels if you haven't got anything better. That is one reason you have a CHON economy before you get to post-scarcity; carbon dioxide from Venus, methane from the outer system. Ammonium nitrate plus carbon is effectively solid atmosphere; basic chemistry, and ethanol is a waste product. Iron and silicon you can get most anywhere. Then all you need is trace elements, which is a lot easier to recycle. "Dole yeast" (Larry Niven) will feed you indefinitely, but after a while you'd kill for a bacon sandwich and your favourite drink.
Survival is easy, prospering and have a fun life, that's more what Fenspace is about.
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"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind