Without magic like very easy FTL travel space is just too big for any kind of meaningful capitalism. Your "return on investment" would be maybe getting some rocks back centuries or millenia later. Slowboating significant amounts of resources between star systems is a logistical challenge that I, at least, don't think is achievable under physics as we currently understand it. And admittedly I'm not a physicist, but I at least understand that you need exponentially more reaction mass the closer you get to C.
Like maybe you could send brains running on some kind of extremely durable machine system to other stars with all the stuff they'd need to start some kind of life there, but that'd be hundreds or thousands of years out in the deep black with no energy and no resources at all, getting bombarded with gamma radiation and hard x-rays and god knows what else. Just simple entropy would make surviving with any kind of systems intact a monumental achievement, let alone something that could wake up and still be meaningfully sentient.
Basically - There's no way you'd ever get a return on your investment. You could maybe send yourself to another star system for the promise of a few megaacres of cheap "land", but a lot of things would have to change pretty radically for a capitalist to invest resources in that.
Yeah, you’re right. I still think they’d at some point load up generation ships with serfs, a privileged security caste, and the would be nobility if they think it’s feasible.
It’s more of an existential dread “what if this never ends” “what if it just manages to shamble along until it becomes even slightly feasible”.
Like, mass deportation to a colony wouldn’t get the same blowback of mass murdering workers. If things are bad enough a lot might volunteer.
I probably need to just read less dystopian sci-fi and find something optimistic.
Without magic like very easy FTL travel space is just too big for any kind of meaningful capitalism. Your "return on investment" would be maybe getting some rocks back centuries or millenia later. Slowboating significant amounts of resources between star systems is a logistical challenge that I, at least, don't think is achievable under physics as we currently understand it. And admittedly I'm not a physicist, but I at least understand that you need exponentially more reaction mass the closer you get to C.
Like maybe you could send brains running on some kind of extremely durable machine system to other stars with all the stuff they'd need to start some kind of life there, but that'd be hundreds or thousands of years out in the deep black with no energy and no resources at all, getting bombarded with gamma radiation and hard x-rays and god knows what else. Just simple entropy would make surviving with any kind of systems intact a monumental achievement, let alone something that could wake up and still be meaningfully sentient.
Basically - There's no way you'd ever get a return on your investment. You could maybe send yourself to another star system for the promise of a few megaacres of cheap "land", but a lot of things would have to change pretty radically for a capitalist to invest resources in that.
Yeah, you’re right. I still think they’d at some point load up generation ships with serfs, a privileged security caste, and the would be nobility if they think it’s feasible.
It’s more of an existential dread “what if this never ends” “what if it just manages to shamble along until it becomes even slightly feasible”.
Like, mass deportation to a colony wouldn’t get the same blowback of mass murdering workers. If things are bad enough a lot might volunteer.
I probably need to just read less dystopian sci-fi and find something optimistic.
no that wouldn't provide a fast enough return on capital investment to justify the cost. It could happen under feuadalism but not capitalism
Good point, the tech feudalists are rich but not entirely in control.
Yeah, I feel that.