A small piece of interplanetary fiction

that I wrote is here.

More like this

Terrific story.
Bit puzzled though. Had they never heard of the Bostrom's Great Filter, or the Fermi Paradox? I think they would make a nice addition to the story.

By Peter Smith (not verified) on 21 Oct 2014 #permalink

“But then the last part of the cycle runs faster simply because the planet is smaller. Quasi intelligence builds technology webs sooner on smaller planets, and when the Koch Effect swings into play, smaller planets are simply more vulnerable.”

OTOH, smaller planets with weaker gravity are surely less likely to suffer bolide impacts?

Although I guess that depends on whether there’s Jovian planet relatively nearby (say 5 AU or so?) to shield it and so on.

I can think of plenty of complicating additional factors here and not sure that for example smaller world always means less water. (Enceladus, Ceres & Pluto for example are all much smaller than Earth yet have much more water in percentage of their mass terms.)

Interesting though and picturing aliens enjoying the pub after a lecture is certainly reassuringly familiar!

***
Once thought to be rocky, we now believe Ceres may contain 200 million cubic kilometres of water in its mantle. This is more than the amount of fresh water on the Earth.
– Page 10, “Ceres may be a failed miniplanet” by Jeff Foust in Astronomy Now magazine, November, 2005.

By Astrostevo (not verified) on 23 Oct 2014 #permalink