One thing I’d for sure bring is a computer with the all of wikipedia download, CAD software and a 3D printer and lots of filament. The technology on even the consumer level (or “prosumer”) 3D printers is amazing now. With a few basic hand tools, and an assortment of things like fasteners, springs, o-rings… I can build a lot of different things. Things like replacement components for other brought along equipment can be designed and printed. Also things like arduino boards to make simple automated equipment.
I’d also bring some corn to grow (assuming it can grow where we are going). Corn makes up a lot more of our diets than most people realize (some of it is indirect, like animal feed).
I did see a lot of replies here saying lots of engineers. Too many IMO. A few good ones would be enough for me. Perhaps 20-30. Likely mostly MEs, a few EE / CS, a few Civil. We’d need a few MDs with common medicines too.
I know it uses resources, but I’d bring a few dogs. I like them too much to leave them out of human history. Likely a few goats, chickens and fish (I’d set up an aquaponics system for fish and vegetable production) too.
I would assume we could domesticate something native to the planet, but goats and chickens until we can get that going is a good idea (better bring a rooster too, those chickens only live so long). Goats can provide milk/meat etc easily.
I would also bring some quail. They can go from hatched to ready to eat in under 2 months.
My problem with corn is the space it takes to produce any appreciable amount is too great. Need something more productive and maybe more stable. Some of the ancient grains maybe. This of course assumes the soil has similar chemistry to earth’s
I am assuming that with 1,000 people that we will have electricity. Likely in the form of solar with a few generators as well. I’d have some electric motors as well. An electric motor being driven is a generator if it is being mechanically driven. If there is flowing water, or blowing wind, you could make electricity, by attaching the electric motor.
I’d bring a lot of filament. The utility of a 3D printer is worth it IMO.
Corn is about as efficient of a crop as you can grow. Calories per acre is crazy with corn. It’s also why it’s in so many products / used to feed livestock. Efficiency makes it cheap.
Solar uses silicone, glass, etc. How are you going to build the panels? Generators, computers and equipment have metal how will you build more or replace parts? How would you solder?
How will you harness the electricity/power? What would be the conductor used copper?
The idea that we would be able to get anywhere near where we are is a fantasy. Everything we have is only possible because of the preexisting infrastructure it was built on. It would most likely take thousands of years.
Don’t need that for corn - it’s wind pollinated.
Could bring Mason or leafcutter bees - they live in the ground or crevices and rarely sting (solitary bees with no hive to protect - but no honey). And you can keep the larva dormant by keeping them cold- will travel well.
Photodiodes are the building block of photovoltaic solar panels. If you can make a functioning photodiode, you can absolutely make a transistor. The technologies are closely related and similarly complex. Unless by solar panels you just mean solar heating of water with no electricity involved, solar panels are a long way off.
Creating an electric generator driven by either a river or charcoal boiler is not terribly difficult. You need iron for magnets and copper for wires (or other magnetic and conductive materials), but they can both be relatively crude. However, the bigger question in regards to electricity is what are you going to actually power with the electricity. You can make crude light bulbs, electric heaters, and electric motors relatively easily, but torches, campfires, and steam engines achieve all of those more directly. Electricity is a great energy distribution system as a city grows and it becomes very powerful when you have more complicated devices that you can power with it. But in the early stages, I think it might be a solution without a problem.
In the hypothetical, we did have 1,000 total people going. I am assuming if we have tech to make it to a distant world, we are going to be able to bring a few items like existing solar panels, generators…
What they were working with was not the same as corn is today. Corn today has been selectively bred to basically make it much more efficient. If the Aztecs had info like we have today, and corn like we do today it would have been a lot easier for them.
My point about bringing corn is that it is about as efficient of a crop as you can grow to feed people. When humans discovered growing grains it was followed by a population boom. I’d also bring potatoes, as they are easy to grow and have a lot of calories.
I realize I am not including everything I’d bring. Just some of the stuff I think would be important with a group of 1,000. What I’d bring would be different for a different size group.
Why is this a concern? Normal inbreeding is a problem mainly because genetic defects are much more likely to be homozygous. Since no-one is homozygous on Y-chromosome genetic diversity, how can there be such a thing as y-chromosome in-breeding?
Put another way, a man gets a single y chromosome from his father. This is the same y chromosome that his paternal grandfather gave to his father. His maternal grandfather may or may not have had the same y chromosome. However, since his mother did not have a y-chromosome, genetically it makes no difference to the man what his maternal grandfather’s Y-chromosome looked like. His brothers will also have the same Y-chromosome (as will his father’s brothers and his cousins from his father’s brothers.
(It’s true that Y-chromosomes have a certain amount of mutation just like all genetic material, but it is less than other chromosomes due to the lack of recombination, and doesn’t depend on "inbreeding).
