Faux-natural barriers between environments in a world-sized zoo
Suppose a K-II civilization built a terrarium or zoo, featuring life and ecosystems from different worlds as it travelled through the universe. (By K-II I mean in terms of resources and energy budget required. I don't mean technology indistinguishable from magic, as that's a cop-out in a hard SF story. In general, I want to minimize the number of exceptional things that are not real (known) physics or go unexplained.)
Clearly you need "hard" compartments for different domains that are fundamentally different in atmosphere etc. But it would be more pleasing if exhibits were separated from each other in a more unobtrusive natural-looking way.
Having contenents or suitably-sized islands is no barrier since life can fly, swim, or blow in the wind. If there were subtle partitions in the water as well that would not stop air travel and would block ocean circulation.
If you had tall mountains, you need a hard partition as well to reach even higher in the air and prevent any tunneling through. And that causes problems with weather.
Active defences as a backup against normal-ish barriers? How would they work?
And finally, how to visitors and explorers manage to go where they please, when even clever natives with lots of time cannot.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/45410. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
0 answers
0 comment threads