There's almost no traffic on Ajthat. People rarely travel, or are at least
not seen, and it is hard to say what would they travel between. The whole
planet can be best described as one scattered village, where [one] can reach
as far as fourth or tenth neighbour before dark. There are no clear borders
between places, nor [are there] clear centers, places where a larger group
of people would gather, any structures of religion or state. Thus it is possible
to walk a large portion of the planet while looking like someone who went
to buy something for lunch.
No vivacious transportation of goods is observed, nor of informations. Even
the energy transportation flows unnoticed - even the lighting of the roads
is not customary here. With three moons which alternately light the night
side of the planet, that is not necessary. Only two or three times a year
it happens that a good portion of the night is dark, but that is simply known
in advance and in those nights [one] does not start on [the] road.
(Romfu) that we don't notice some
things does not mean they don't exist.
Among means of transportation noticed were road oneseaters and twoseaters,
some with sails, foot driven (pedals and an obscure system of strings, pipes
and spanned membranes). For cargo hauling there are models with trailers,
extended rear part or they simply tie a rope somewhere to pull the baloon
to carry the load. They usually run the baloons down the wind - they probably
know their winds. They do know how to harness the wind, that we often saw
the load pulling the cart.
We never so any big building, specially not anything which couldn't be built
out of the materials found on the spot. No big building makhines. We saw
only one building site, a dozen people were using hand tools, without any
large technical aid. Out of the soil dug nearby they made adobe, which they
baked on a handy mirror, and they bound it with some mixture of clay and
bouillon out of plants from a nearby pasture. The beams are wooden, of trees
planted purposedly there a necessary number of years in advance. They strengthened
them again with some other stew of surrounding plants (they let us know the
plants were specially cultivated, and that nothing is built where they won't
take root). Various harness and spikes are made of the same tree's
branches, strengthened in another process. All in all, everything on that
site came from within walking distance. We didn't notice any great rush;
[one] would say that building is more of a religious rite than hard work.
Possible answers to questions arising:
they spend energy as little as possible because it is scarce; they
found a way to live like that, full adaptation to environment
(Gelon:if they bake brick on sunshine,
what stops them from making bigger mirrors?)
transportation/transfer is underground, forgotten or forbidden to show
the population can communicate with mind; on planets where this was
developed, all the other traffic has died off or
atrophied
the relation of production/consumption/population is balanced and there
is no large need to relocate the goods from place to place
they are screwing us into a healthy brain and showing us a planet-sized
Potrebkin's village (Romfu: ahem, so where are then the things we're not
allowed to see?)