[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The problem with the 19th century US example is that it depended on mass immigration. Russia and Siberia, or Japan and their northernmost island, show that it can take thousands of years before a society even thinks of expanding into nearby marginal, lightly populated territory.

Good point. The colony is mostly dependent on providing it's own population for expansion.

Originally Posted by Nosforontu

True however the 19th century did not have access to the possibility of Clone Tech, Bioroids, Fertility Drugs, Artificial birth clinics, state of the art medical care, panimunity treatments, longevity vaccines etc. I suspect that if a TL 10 society really wanted to crank out new population units they could do so at least as quickly as 19th century immigration rates, and would do a far better job at keeping its current population alive and fit.

Yeah if they really want to crank out more population they can just explode. I was thinking that while the population growth in the colony and the frontier specifically was greater than usual because of a societal demand for backup population and a need for more population to support the full range of TL 10 specialists more easily they weren't actively trying to fill the planet up as fast as humanly possible

Originally Posted by ericthered

On the other hand, The higher the tech level, the greater reliance on cities, so settlement might refer to the building up of specific sites. People will want to live on less space so they can have access to the high tech amenities of the city.

Yeah this is part of the reason I'm stretching out the settlement of the planet. The frontierspeople are noticeable in their numbers but they are outnumbered by people in the capitol and don't comprise enough people to maintain a colony independently. In fact they are somewhat parasitical though they do have their uses to the capitol in resource extraction and backup population. Ultra-tech allows quite phenomenal city densities and the people in the capitol like it that way so a large chunk of the colony while growing and developing isn't really expanding horizontally.

Originally Posted by ericthered

another thing to consider is how "filled up" the US is today. I grew up in a town of 30,000. there is nothing bigger than us for 120 miles in any direction. The land wasn't settled because it wasn't desirable, and is now off limits for settlement (not that there is a burning desire to do so). I know that I am the exception, but the fact that it exists demonstrates what america considers to be "settled".

Good point! A society might expand slower if it prefers to settle areas more thoroughly.