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Originally posted by nbz:


Another thing is that it is the alliance that the earth could no longer support our numbers. Is that true? could it support a reduced population? if yes, would everyone want to leave? Especially those cultures that are more at peace with their surrounding and give them a greater importance? and which populations existed at the time of the exodus? had their been famin, or war before hand? could whole civilisations have been wiped out?

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Originally posted by Waltzing:

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Originally posted by nbz:


Another thing is that it is the alliance that the earth could no longer support our numbers. Is that true? could it support a reduced population? if yes, would everyone want to leave? Especially those cultures that are more at peace with their surrounding and give them a greater importance? and which populations existed at the time of the exodus? had their been famin, or war before hand? could whole civilisations have been wiped out?

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I've wondered this too. They say that Earth 'could not sustain our numbers' but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone left. As has been mentioned, it was probably quite expensive to leave, so many would not have the means. Also, I would think that some people like their homes, and not want to leave. So it seems that those who stayed would be a mixture of the very poor, who can't afford to leave, and the very rich, who like their palatial houses and their currenet station in life. Those who left are like the pioneers from back in the day, colonists heading to new worlds. I think that Earth is probably still around and populated, unless there was some war or other disastrous event that we haven't heard of, and that Earth is just far from the Core, and therefore not paid much attention to.

As for the whole insect thing, that's an interesting point. I'd guess that the addition of insects to the atmosphere would be part of the terraforming.

On the culture idea, that's really interesting. I'm sure there was some effort to maintain certain cultures and nationalist groups (although who knows, they may have been quite different from now by the time everyone left for the stars). However, as people began settling planets and such, things began shifting and mixing together, until each planet/moon created its own new and unique culture (much like European colonists in America eventually created new cultures and groups that were different from those of European colonists in Australia, or Africa, etc., each corresponding to the differences in environment.

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Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:


Here's a thought. Worlds that were once resource rich and now aren't. Maybe some of them wanted to stay in the Alliance, but were too poor and far out to be bothered with.
The Roman Empire motif keeps coming back to me. The Alliance over-stretched itself, and maybe some of the military outposts found themselves more closely tied to the planets they were stationed by than the Central Command.

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Originally posted by wytchcroft:


MerryK - i like your vision of the Earth-that-was and maybe kinda still is... Anthony Stewart Head as keeper of the archives anyone???

but - a thought occurs - what if was a hoax of soomekind - to shift undesirables into the black - 'go colonise paradise people' - what if Earth that was is now a luxury play planet for the secret uber rich???

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