That's my point, Don. The technology to build in the Terran Federation is as far ahead of us as we are ahead of Caesar. OWL's fabber needed raw materials and energy to make Nimue's PICA body. Yet in the Federation PICA's were hideously expensive. The same applies to fabbers themselves, compact fusion plants, mining bots and all the other geegaws of the TF. On Safehold if one has a fabber, the only cost of a piece of equipment are the material and energy inputs.
The dissemination of technology is only hampered by lifestyle choices once the demand for fabbers has been satisfied. On Earth many of the third world cannot afford the production costs and imbedded R&D costs in the devices of the first world. That's why Safehold will turn out differently. Nobody owns the knowledge on Safehold, the inner circle simply are the only one's with access. That will change soon enough.
