I had not considered that the "problem" the British had with Botany Bay was the lack of sterilization. Sterilization does keep the prison/colony population stable/controllable.
Still even sterile prisoners/colonists were imprisoned for their uppity-ness and non-conforming attitudes. If the resulting culture is not too vicious (a al San Quentin), organized revolt seems very likely. Seems a tough box to be in; a vicious culture is not a productive prison/colony. A productive prison/colony is may organize a revolt. This does of course assume politicians dealing with today's problem (unruly citizens and dissent) care about tomorrow's problem (possible prison/colony revolt). History indicates such future-oriented thinking is unlikely :-) -----Original Message----- From: Jim Dixon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 1:29 PM To: John Washburn Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Lunar Colony On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, John Washburn wrote: > I would think the problem with the camp X-Ray approach is the same as > happened historically in Botany Bay or fictionally in the Moon is a > Harsh Mistress. > > When (not if) the ongoing support of the penal colony collapses what > happens? > > The children are in legal limbo; neither convict nor citizen. (No one Don't they all get sterilized by radiation on the way to Mars, meaning that there are no children to be concerned about? > is going to pay the expense to ship them home). The colonists are cut > off from the home world/empire. They had little love for the home > world/empire in the first place. Cut adrift and left to their own > devices why wouldn't the colonists/prisoners declare independence and > have an interplanetary war of secession? Assuming that the radiation isn't such a serious problem, the moon looks like a more realistic proposition. Only a couple of days away. Lots of energy in sunlight. Lots of available minerals. Gravity well fairly shallow so things can be exported to Earth if on friendly terms and trading -- or just tossed in that direction if things go bad. ;-) -- Jim Dixon [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel +44 117 982 0786 mobile +44 797 373 7881 http://jxcl.sourceforge.net Java unit test coverage http://xlattice.sourceforge.net p2p communications infrastructure
