Would human civilization develop at a slower pace if Earth was 5.8x larger?

Yes and no, and possibly "it depends on what you mean by "civilization".

As L. Dutch already noted, technological development is more a function of available resources and population density.

On the one hand, it's quite believable that population density could increase at least as quickly as on our Earth, and indeed, perhaps faster given how much more real estate is available.

On the other hand, it's not entirely unreasonable to believe that people would tend to spread out more given the available space, which could lead to less socializing in general, towns and cities being slower to develop, etc. Also, even if this doesn't happen on a global scale, it's possible that globalization will be slower, that you'll have e.g. Europe with the technology level of today while Asia still doesn't have electricity.

In particular, note that your oceans are 5.8x as big, which makes them significantly harder to cross. There is a very real chance that Columbus did not "discover" the New World and South America was never exposed to Europeans. It's even possible that Vikings never found it either. (We'll probably still get there, though, but across either the Bering Strait or the island chain between Russia and Alaska.)

By the era of steam ships, "the West" should be accessible, but that's a big ocean to fly across. If you think trans-Atlantic flights are brutal in our world, flying from Europe to America takes days. Days. And you have to stop multiple times to refuel. Iceland and possibly Greenland are huge transportation hubs. That, or no one even tries to cross the Atlantic ocean. (To put this in perspective, crossing the Atlantic in your world is on par with circumnavigating the entire planet in our world. Keep in mind there is nowhere to stop while you're doing this; you have to carry all your food/water/fuel with you. Crossing the Pacific? Australia to South America? Circumnavigating our world twice. Prior to the Space Age, there's a very real chance that the Pacific is still labeled "here be dragons"... and if dragons are dinosaurs, that label might even be correct.)

Hawaii is of particular note. It's pretty remote already, and shipping stuff there isn't cheap. In your world, it's quite possible that, if it's inhabited at all, they have to make do almost entirely off their own resources.

Clearer points out that humanity is believed to have started in the vicinity of what is now Kenya, an area not historically known for civil or technological development. It is, however, in the more hospitable part of Africa, from which one would expect humans to at least find Lake Victoria. Having accomplished as much, Lake Edward / Lake Albert are only (in your world) another 200-300 miles away, at which point you're on the upper bits of the Nile and can expect people to find Egypt and the Mediterranean... which are known for developing the earliest civilizations. Accordingly, you might be looking at a longer period before the start of civilization, but once those regions are settled, all the other information / answers apply.

posted over 4 years ago

Matthew‭

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