Generation Ships

[Danukian]

Originally Posted by Sindri

While I would vaguely dislike the idea of not being able to eat a whatever ever again there are a lot of foods that I could never have access to again and not really notice.

Maybe you wouldn't notice, but in the Navy, some people start to gripe after 2 days, almost everyone has a strong craving after 6 months. I'm picturing some of the biggest complainers I knew after 20 years....

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Booze: If this bird is really TL8 (suspending disbelief for the sake of discussion), it's going to be pretty fragile to careless mishaps and everybody needs to be on their game 24/7. If I was writing the rules, they'd read like: "Possession gets you days in solitary equal to all cumulative offenses, per offense. Building and operating a still (without a permit for industrial uses) gets you spaced. No judge. No trial. Spaced. Any questions?"

Most navies other than US and Muslim nations have alcohol rations, and things have been going reasonably for the past 4 centuries. Knowing the desperate ingenuity of people who are prohibited from drinking for 2 weeks, a "dry" generational ship is going to have an impossible task of hunting down blige-wine operations - which only require water, sugar, yeast, and a sealed container - not to mention if a guy from engineering cooperates with a guy from hydroponics and food resources! Heck, if there is no legal stimulants, it'll only be a matter of time before a generation of over-educated, under-thrilled deviants start cooking up nasty chemical highs as a replacement. If this ship can handle 30 children running amok, I'm sure it's study enough for Crewman Jones to have 2 beers a days.


Back to the OP: I think you will need a higher than average percentage of capable teachers and maintenance personal, able to keep a ship functional as well as train the next generations of doctors, engineers, crewman, etc.