On January 1, 2016, the Southern Fried Science central server began uploading blog posts apparently circa 2041. Due to a related corruption of the contemporary database, we are, at this time, unable to remove these Field Notes from the Future or prevent the uploading of additional posts. Please enjoy this glimpse into the ocean future while we attempt to rectify the situation.
It is a trope long held that there are some *problems* with the ecosystems of the Star Wars universe. The worlds of Star Wars are monobiomes. We have the desert planets of Jakku and Tatooine; the ice planet of Hoth; the forest moon of Endor; the jungles of Yavin IV; the lava world of whatever that mess was in Revenge of the Sith. This is, of course, not limited to Star Wars, science fiction is resplendent with monobiomes. But natural worlds are not uniform. Diversity builds over distance. Isolation shapes and reshapes population. Ecosystems do not generally strive to approach a global equilibrium state.
Even though all known viable planets have ecosystem diversity, this trope continues to dominate popular science fiction. We love monobiomes.
But what if the trope is right?
Almost 100 years ago, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed an eponymous scale to classify civilizations. Roughly, a Type I Civilization can capture or produce the same amount of energy equivalent to the solar insolation on Earth. A Type II civilization can produce the equivalent energy of its solar system (i.e. harness the full power of the sun). A Type III Civilization can do the same for all sun in its galaxy. We hover somewhere just south of Type I, but the Galactic Republic of Star Wars lies somewhere between a Type II and a Type III.
Read More “What Star Wars can teach us about the ecology of a Type I civilization” »