DizzasterJuice
16th Oct 2015, 1:35 PM

Thanks. Yeah it's nice to get out of the caves every once in awhile.

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DizzasterJuice
16th Oct 2015, 1:38 PM

If you go by Carri's flashback scene to when the trade agreement was signed, Mitri was about 9 or 10 at the time and she's about 17 now so it hasn't been but 7 or 8 years since the trail was abandoned.

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DizzasterJuice
16th Oct 2015, 1:40 PM

She's a smart kid. I'm sure she brought food with her.

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DizzasterJuice
16th Oct 2015, 1:44 PM

Thanks. Yes it is a journey. It's 280 km (174 miles) on the trail from Dhaka to Dalai so it takes the better part of a week for a rider on a good horse to make that trip.

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They need trains

xpacetrue
16th Oct 2015, 6:33 PM

I don't know how long the trip takes by boat. But if it takes a week by horse, they could sure use a train. They have steam power now, right?

BTW: Do they yet have plans to build a steam-powered boat?

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DizzasterJuice
16th Oct 2015, 10:47 PM

They are just now experimenting with steam power. It took us humans over a thousand years from the first Aeolipile, a rudimentary steam engine, to the first functional engine in 1712. It won't take them that long though because they happen to be sitting on an active volcano in the middle of an ocean so they have an unlimited free source of steam.
Aeolipile

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xpacetrue
17th Oct 2015, 9:17 PM

Ah, but there's been cultural contamination from humans. They speak their language, even, and read their literature like the works of Mark Twain. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" talks about a steam boat on the Mississippi. Is "Roughing It" by Mark Twain one of the books the missionaries brought? He chronicled his experiences living and working out West in that one and talks about the railroad.

If you have a decent metalworking industry and understand the basic concepts behind a Sterling Engine, it's not too difficult to build one. Heck, I've seen a book with instructions and blueprints on how to build a single piston engine out of cardboard.

Anyway, as many humans as came to the planet and intermingled/married, I'm surprised more technological innovations weren't introduced. Or did they try to minimize their impact and cultural contamination? Do the Minkie have printing presses, at least?

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DizzasterJuice
18th Oct 2015, 2:05 PM

Most of the humans were stranded there so there was no organized plan like a "prime directive". The amount of cultural contamination varied from each stranded crew but for the most part they tried to minimize their impact and did not share any technical information with them. The Minkies still think that the humans fly down on "cloud dragons".
All the felines would have been wiped out by now (page 149) if it wasn't for human intervention so they have had a large influence on the planet.

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