#WritingCommunity#Solarpunk #Hopepunk
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#WritingCommunity
#Solarpunk
#HopepunkCan anyone suggest a way that I might be making a mistake in the idea for my next book? Here it is.
200 years after a global catastrophic failure of humanity's fossil-fuelled societies, a small community of shipbuilders and sailors starts exploring oceanic trade with a big wooden cargo ship. No engines or electric motors. Sails only is their technological level. No motors or batteries makes sense to me, but do you think it might be a mistake?
Thanks.
@DavidBridger something to consider for your story is this - after two centuries of collapse there will be isolated groups of humans. Folks showing up with sailboats will bring diseases. Languages will also have shifted a bit so even if your sailors manage to stay within anglophone territories there will be some cases of misunderstandings so you’ll see trade pidgin and even hand talk like in native North America.
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@DavidBridger for a big vessel? So its either 200 years of tradition of smaller ones, or a potential failure
@alxd Yes, 200 years of building smaller boats. That's the picture exactly.
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@DavidBridger something to consider for your story is this - after two centuries of collapse there will be isolated groups of humans. Folks showing up with sailboats will bring diseases. Languages will also have shifted a bit so even if your sailors manage to stay within anglophone territories there will be some cases of misunderstandings so you’ll see trade pidgin and even hand talk like in native North America.
@DavidBridger (sorry didn’t answer your sailing tech question!)
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@DavidBridger sounds okay to me. I look at today's green energy and while it will do much to reduce global emissions, we are still ruining the environment by mining for precious metals and minerals for this tech (and going to war to obtain them).
If you want a non fiction history book about how we have travelled across the sea since early humans right until the present, I highly recommend this book.
@Emmacox Thank you, Emma. I'll buy that.
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@DavidBridger How small a community?
@DrorBedrack 220 people, with a family of traditional boatbuilders at its core.
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Two centuries is enough for nearly all electrical things to fail, and spare parts can't be made without an industrial base.
*Some* places might have basic radio; batteries aren't hard to make (2 metals, some acid); water and wind power are fairly easy to gather with magnets and wire.
A ship engine requires infrastructure. Especially to fuel it. (At *least* a coal mine; refining is more.) Anywhere there's decent regular winds wouldn't bother with more than sails.
(All IMHO.
)@ringles This is precisely how I'm thinking. Suddenly had a wobble of confidence about the possible longevity of battery technology, hence this thread.
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@DavidBridger There can be no mistakes if you build your world convincingly. You just have to let us believe in why that technology exists. Could be because it is a taboo to use any other kind of tech, if people blame tech for the catastrophe?
@dilmandila Thanks. I used the taboo model in a previous book and it worked well for that story, but this time I'd like to make it a more realistic lack of resources and technological knowledge.
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@DavidBridger something to consider for your story is this - after two centuries of collapse there will be isolated groups of humans. Folks showing up with sailboats will bring diseases. Languages will also have shifted a bit so even if your sailors manage to stay within anglophone territories there will be some cases of misunderstandings so you’ll see trade pidgin and even hand talk like in native North America.
@myerman This is an exciting idea. Thank you.
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#WritingCommunity
#Solarpunk
#HopepunkCan anyone suggest a way that I might be making a mistake in the idea for my next book? Here it is.
200 years after a global catastrophic failure of humanity's fossil-fuelled societies, a small community of shipbuilders and sailors starts exploring oceanic trade with a big wooden cargo ship. No engines or electric motors. Sails only is their technological level. No motors or batteries makes sense to me, but do you think it might be a mistake?
Thanks.
@DavidBridger I can see how a collapsed society would need to reject all stored power models (like batteries), and therefore motors and electrical power as a whole, except possibly where it is naturally occurring - lightning strikes, for example.
It makes sense in context. And it makes sense that a society would decide to reject anything that reflects the lead-up to the catastrophe.
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@DavidBridger I can see how a collapsed society would need to reject all stored power models (like batteries), and therefore motors and electrical power as a whole, except possibly where it is naturally occurring - lightning strikes, for example.
It makes sense in context. And it makes sense that a society would decide to reject anything that reflects the lead-up to the catastrophe.
@SteveClough It does make sense to me. Just wondered if I was missing something. Thanks for your encouragement.
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#WritingCommunity
#Solarpunk
#HopepunkCan anyone suggest a way that I might be making a mistake in the idea for my next book? Here it is.
200 years after a global catastrophic failure of humanity's fossil-fuelled societies, a small community of shipbuilders and sailors starts exploring oceanic trade with a big wooden cargo ship. No engines or electric motors. Sails only is their technological level. No motors or batteries makes sense to me, but do you think it might be a mistake?
Thanks.
@DavidBridger
Depending on the type of catastrophe, I'd be surprised that no one was trying to scavenge old electric engines and solar panels, at least for a while. But I don't know enough about engines to see the points of failure that could make such scavenging possible. Maybe after 200 years most things were broken beyond repair.Based on my sparse knowledge of current sailing cargo ships, one consideration for your story line is: what happened to the trees during the catastrophe and the subsequent 200 years. Do trees remained and, after 200 years, healthy forest recovered? Or were most trees cut down as people tried to heat themselves just after the catastrophe? Maybe some areas had forests, others didn’t? Just thinking on the care that shipbuilders put in selecting the tree for the mast.
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@DavidBridger
Depending on the type of catastrophe, I'd be surprised that no one was trying to scavenge old electric engines and solar panels, at least for a while. But I don't know enough about engines to see the points of failure that could make such scavenging possible. Maybe after 200 years most things were broken beyond repair.Based on my sparse knowledge of current sailing cargo ships, one consideration for your story line is: what happened to the trees during the catastrophe and the subsequent 200 years. Do trees remained and, after 200 years, healthy forest recovered? Or were most trees cut down as people tried to heat themselves just after the catastrophe? Maybe some areas had forests, others didn’t? Just thinking on the care that shipbuilders put in selecting the tree for the mast.
@marsiposa Thanks, Mar. I'm happy that this bit (wooden boatbuilding and trees) is in my wheelhouse.
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@marsiposa Thanks, Mar. I'm happy that this bit (wooden boatbuilding and trees) is in my wheelhouse.
@DavidBridger awesome. Personally, I think it's a fantastic thing to write about. I love reading stories with far-reach yet low-tech transportation (zeppelins instead of airplanes, sail ships, etc).
For a while, I was engrossed watching videos of the attempt to build the Ceiba cargo sailship in Costa Rica. Sadly it seems they were not able to get it finnished.
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@DavidBridger awesome. Personally, I think it's a fantastic thing to write about. I love reading stories with far-reach yet low-tech transportation (zeppelins instead of airplanes, sail ships, etc).
For a while, I was engrossed watching videos of the attempt to build the Ceiba cargo sailship in Costa Rica. Sadly it seems they were not able to get it finnished.
@marsiposa I loved watching that project. Good news is they appear to have solved the insurance problem that stopped everything, so they should be able to get everyone back together and working soon. Another project I binge-watch-inhaled was Tally Ho on the Sampson Boat Co channel. Highly recommended.
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@marsiposa I loved watching that project. Good news is they appear to have solved the insurance problem that stopped everything, so they should be able to get everyone back together and working soon. Another project I binge-watch-inhaled was Tally Ho on the Sampson Boat Co channel. Highly recommended.
@DavidBridger ooh thanks for sharing both of those things! I didn’t know why they had stopped the Ceiba. It's such a beautiful ship, I hope they can get back on track.
I didn't know about the Tally Ho. I'll look for it!
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@Dewines Thank you.
Hi,
Maybe it is a continuation of this initiative 🤭
Fairtransport Cargo Under Sail Home - Fairtransport
Fairtransport De Toekomst van Milieuvriendelijke Scheepvaart Fairtransport staat voor milieuvriendelijk transport. Sinds 2007 streven we ernaar om onze gezamenlijke uitstoot van milieu schadende stoffen te minimaliseren. Met onze zeilende vloot, vervoeren we duurzame vracht over zee door middel van slechts de kracht van de wind. Geniet van onze kwalitatieve, biologische en ambachtelijke heerlijkheden van eerlijke producenten.
Fair transport - Cargo Under Sail (fairtransport.eu)
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#WritingCommunity
#Solarpunk
#HopepunkCan anyone suggest a way that I might be making a mistake in the idea for my next book? Here it is.
200 years after a global catastrophic failure of humanity's fossil-fuelled societies, a small community of shipbuilders and sailors starts exploring oceanic trade with a big wooden cargo ship. No engines or electric motors. Sails only is their technological level. No motors or batteries makes sense to me, but do you think it might be a mistake?
Thanks.
@DavidBridger id read it. Depending on what collapsed in society, was there enough of a shift in atmospheric conditions that sextant usage is impacted? I am *not* a sailor, but I believe sextant readings can be impacted by pollution, temperature, and air density (since all three affect refraction and *may* influence where the stellar body you’re shooting appears to be). Long distance navigation accuracy may have been affected by whatever happened in centuries past - not an insurmountable problem (I expect people would have figured out the new normal) but maybe old paper charts and logs don’t quite take you where they once did. Or the upper atmosphere is still in such flux that bubbles of misdirection swirl in difficult to predict patterns, forcing folk to consider wind and tides and nav timelines when planning journeys.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
