SharkHunter wrote:Really enjoying this thread, and noticed a bit about "prolong" as it applies to the Honorverse. Apparently the med-tech involved is somewhere short of a century old in Manticore at the opening of the series; King Roger didn't have it but QEIII does. Protector Benjamin chose not to when in school, all of his children have it.
King Roger definitely did. He wasn't 3rd gen prolong, but he was either first or second generation. His reign was expected to be very long as he was the first monarch to be a prolong recipient.
His mother, Queen Samantha, wasn't a recipient.
As for the Graysons, the problem was that Benjamin Mayhew was too old already by the time the reforms took place and the treatment became available to the population. The Protector and the Steadholders probably had enough wealth to pay for it themselves if they wanted to, as Grayson had been in contact with the outside world, though sporadically, since 1793 PD. But doing so was probably politically unwise, so they didn't.
My thought being, prior to prolong, uncontrolled population growth would have been as toxic to a new planetary system as the last two hundred years have been on Earth. So even with a few centuries in place, there would be a certain amount of cultural inertia in place where conspicuous reproduction would have been frowned upon.
With Prolong in place, I'm thinking that galactic exploration in the Honorverse should be "about to go crazy", once the OFS supported oligarchies get the boot put on them by the GA... with EVERY wormhole owning system turning into major emigration points. Thoughts?
I disagree. The carrying capacity of a full star system is in the order of quadrillions. Just start building space habitats and you don't even need to rely on centrifugal gravity if you have artificial gravity. Instead, use rotation to provide day-night cycles.
Grayson definitely had the technology to do so. They had lots of orbital farming to supplement the food supply, as farming on toxic grounds was expensive. What stopped them was a very high mortality rate and probably a cultural/religious tenet of being forced to remain on the planet of Austin Grayson (same as Masadans' "this planet is God's" but less extreme).
But I do agree that exploration should considerably grow now.
