On 3/30/2016 12:54 PM, Craig Berry wrote:
> The problem is that you really can't create a consistent explanation for
> a civilization with Traveller tech (including cheap energy and easy
> travel), relatively laissez-faire capitalism, and pervasive local
> scarcity that *doesn't* result in the spacegoing equivalent of modern
> container ships. It's just the natural evolutionary direction that the
> market will push freight shipping to follow. Never mind that it's
> equally tough to account for pervasive local scarcity given the tech
> assumptions, as exhaustively discussed already.
>
> My explanation for the CT view of shipping is that it was simply what
> mattered to small-lot shippers. The boat that runs supplies out to Two
> Harbors on Catalina Island off Los Angeles is a converted WWII LST with
> a crew of three. They sail to and from Long Beach Harbor, a gigantic
> container port. They pass many freighters along the way, most hundreds
> of times their size. But none of them are carrying a week's worth of
> groceries and fuel to Two Harbors, so from their point of view, those
> giant ships are economically irrelevant, part of the scenery.

As the kids say these days, +1.

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Kelly St. Clair
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