Operation Ark - Original Plan?

Rereading the Safehold series I've been struck by the thought that, while Langhorne's perverted implementation of Operation Ark did guarantee humanity's survival in the short term. (albeit damning it in the long term if successfully applied.) The original plan also called for the overwhelming majority of the known human race to be locked in a technological stasis for their own good, for at the very least, five hundred years.

I wonder what the actual planners of Operation Ark had in mind for successfully locking down human creativity and development for over five centuries? And then to kick start innovation all over again after the all clear was sounded. Bearing in mind that the descendants of over eight million colonists were going to need a REALLY good explanation for whatever culture or beliefs they would be discarding. What kind of 'roadmap' for a society could the planners have been visualising? Religious? Political? or maybe just back to the stone-age!

What got me thinking about this was that people like Ahlfryd Hyndryk, Dynnys Zhwaigair, Urvyn Mahndrayn, Lynkyn Fultyn and no doubt others like them offstage, could have cropped up during that half millennium in which 'Radio-silence' was a survival imperative. During that critical time it would have been necessary to deal with, somehow, the occasional brainiac. Who would have done that dealing? The remaining command crew? If not then who? If so, what about the two centuries approximately, after the last of the theoretical 'on mission' command crew has passed away from natural causes. Who then guards the locals from themselves?

A possible answer to that very last question could be places like Alexandria Enclave combined with hereditary stewardships, perhaps. Sort of mystical, remote, fading into legend kind of places. But even then it's hard to imagine what kind of society such enclaves would fit into. Or even float above!

What kind of plan did the the original designers of Operation Ark intend, knowing that a big-reveal (or even a series of small reveals) after the point of maximum danger had passed, was crucial to the success of that same plan and it's corollary, the continued survival of the human race?

Grabthar's Hammer wrote:Rereading the Safehold series I've been struck by the thought that, while Langhorne's perverted implementation of Operation Ark did guarantee humanity's survival in the short term. (albeit damning it in the long term if successfully applied.) The original plan also called for the overwhelming majority of the known human race to be locked in a technological stasis for their own good, for at the very least, five hundred years.

I wonder what the actual planners of Operation Ark had in mind for successfully locking down human creativity and development for over five centuries? And then to kick start innovation all over again after the all clear was sounded. Bearing in mind that the descendants of over eight million colonists were going to need a REALLY good explanation for whatever culture or beliefs they would be discarding. What kind of 'roadmap' for a society could the planners have been visualising? Religious? Political? or maybe just back to the stone-age!

1) Tell the truth: There's scary aliens out there and there needs to be no radio emissions or other stuff that might give away Safehold's location to anyone passing nearby.

2) Aside from those restrictions, Safehold could otherwise have more and better technology than what Langhorne allowed. Steam engine and even internal combustion is perfectly allowable as long as no electricity is used. Heck, even electricity is allowable as long as certain shielding safeguards are followed. High tech, shielded libraries would allow citizens to research anything they please, and any innovation that doesn't violate electronic emissions standards would have been allowed. Safeholdians could have lived longer, safer, more productive lives, and then go straight into Federation tech when the time limit passes.

I'm a horrible person.

Because I think that the actual planners of Operation Ark knew exactly what they were doing with the makeup of the team, including Langhorne leading them.

That they didn't feel the 500 safety period would be held to by future generations, so they snuck Langhorne and Bedard up there. But then they also wanted to make certain something would happen, so they put the Peis and others on the team.

*shrug*

Yep, life could have been much easier, and there would have been real practical, demonstrable reasons why certain things were forbidden. Buried deep enough and properly shielded there could have been areas where all sorts of computers and tech could have been preserved including AIs and new tech could even have been researched in a limited way. Innovation would not have been barred, just 'radiation'; anyone wanted to create a better mechanical device, a medical procedure, a new plant species etc etc would have been welcome, just so long as it wasn't detectable at a distance.

However I suspect people would have been encouraged to direct their creativity into safe channels like the Arts. I also suspect that 'Homeland Security' would have had eye-watering powers against anyone caught breaching the security legislation and, being taught up to TF or almost standards themselves, would know exactly what they were looking for.

From what David Weber has said, the original plan was to preserve high tech knowledge in two remote areas.

What became Zion was one of the areas with Shan-wei's enclave as the other area. I'd note that some of the characters have wondered why the Archangels chose Zion as their headquarters. There would have been better areas on Safehold for it.

The command crew *and* their descendants would be the guardians of such knowledge with limited high tech resources.

I don't believe David Weber has said how high tech would be revealed to the rest of Safehold when the low-tech period was over.

Grabthar's Hammer wrote:Rereading the Safehold series I've been struck by the thought that, while Langhorne's perverted implementation of Operation Ark did guarantee humanity's survival in the short term. (albeit damning it in the long term if successfully applied.) The original plan also called for the overwhelming majority of the known human race to be locked in a technological stasis for their own good, for at the very least, five hundred years.

I wonder what the actual planners of Operation Ark had in mind for successfully locking down human creativity and development for over five centuries? And then to kick start innovation all over again after the all clear was sounded. Bearing in mind that the descendants of over eight million colonists were going to need a REALLY good explanation for whatever culture or beliefs they would be discarding. What kind of 'roadmap' for a society could the planners have been visualising? Religious? Political? or maybe just back to the stone-age!

What got me thinking about this was that people like Ahlfryd Hyndryk, Dynnys Zhwaigair, Urvyn Mahndrayn, Lynkyn Fultyn and no doubt others like them offstage, could have cropped up during that half millennium in which 'Radio-silence' was a survival imperative. During that critical time it would have been necessary to deal with, somehow, the occasional brainiac. Who would have done that dealing? The remaining command crew? If not then who? If so, what about the two centuries approximately, after the last of the theoretical 'on mission' command crew has passed away from natural causes. Who then guards the locals from themselves?

A possible answer to that very last question could be places like Alexandria Enclave combined with hereditary stewardships, perhaps. Sort of mystical, remote, fading into legend kind of places. But even then it's hard to imagine what kind of society such enclaves would fit into. Or even float above!

What kind of plan did the the original designers of Operation Ark intend, knowing that a big-reveal (or even a series of small reveals) after the point of maximum danger had passed, was crucial to the success of that same plan and it's corollary, the continued survival of the human race?

David Weber gave some information on the original plan for Operation Ark in the thread "Langhorne's big mistake ".

I've bumped that thread up for easy reading.

DrakBibliophile wrote:David Weber gave some information on the original plan for Operation Ark in the thread "Langhorne's big mistake ".

I've bumped that thread up for easy reading.

Thank you .... it was very informative.

Ash

I suppose that rfc was trying to be reassuring when he said that it would all make sense "in the end," but I had a thought....when has one of his story lines ever ended? I suppose you could say the "In Fury Born" series ended, but it never wrapped up neatly, he just got tired of writing in that vein, and I'm pretty sure that the Harrington series has been around since the late 80's or so.

What if it NEVER ends?

Well, I thought he had a good ending to In Fury Born.

IMO it was written as a stand-alone story and worked as such.

Loose ends? Sure but life often gives us "loose ends".

Oh, this is a YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) thing.

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I suppose that rfc was trying to be reassuring when he said that it would all make sense "in the end," but I had a thought....when has one of his story lines ever ended? I suppose you could say the "In Fury Born" series ended, but it never wrapped up neatly, he just got tired of writing in that vein, and I'm pretty sure that the Harrington series has been around since the late 80's or so.

What if it NEVER ends?

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I suppose that rfc was trying to be reassuring when he said that it would all make sense "in the end," but I had a thought....when has one of his story lines ever ended? I suppose you could say the "In Fury Born" series ended, but it never wrapped up neatly, he just got tired of writing in that vein, and I'm pretty sure that the Harrington series has been around since the late 80's or so.

What if it NEVER ends?

If the Safehold series never ends... well go look at what's happened to the Honor Harrington series to see what happens when a series doesn't end when Weber wants it to. It ain't pretty.