by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
So, I continue to think about the Impossible Scenario whereby an alien empire gives humanity the follow opportunity: three habitable planets in a new solar system to call home.
I’ve decided a few new issues. One is that instead of only taking a pill that scans your DNA and mind, you would have the option of also getting into a pod that would scan your entire body. The reason for this is some people have, say, wisdom teeth they needed extracted, or they’ve gotten a face lift or whatever. DNA is not a pure expression of what someone might actually look like.
Also, I continue to roll around in my mind how many people should be in the first wave of settlers. I keep vacillating between a small number of 6,000 split within 40 settlements and a bigger number of, say, 80,000 split between 40 settlements.
I just can’t make up my mind!
I think for narrative purposes, the smaller number makes more sense. But if you were talking about what would realistically happen, then the larger figure is probably what would happen. People — on a geopolitical scale — just would not stand for only 6,000 people being in the absolute first wave.
I guess I just don’t like the idea of the story, once people were zapped, just becoming a bunch of old, powerful people arguing in an impromptu Senate setting. And, yet, that’s exactly what people in reality would want.
