Population of the Firefly universe? by BrucePluto

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Population of the Firefly universe?

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POSTED BY: BRUCEPLUTO
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 04:56
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/pCGLcD
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Monday, August 22, 2011 2:22 AM

Good morning fellow Browncoats!

I’ve been writing a little fan-fic lately and every time I do there are certain questions that pop up about the verse that just have me pondering the answers to. One is, has Joss ever written anywhere about the number of the masses of people that populate the Firefly universe?

Right here on earth it’s estimated that there are over 6 billion folk breathing the air of this little world. I would think that Joss’ space western would at least contain 60 billion? Has he ever produced a number in this regard? Just wondering.

BPZ

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Monday, August 22, 2011 2:36 AM

DJD

In my view its likely to be a lot less than that. We have to consider how many people managed to leave earth that was to trek to the new system. Likely to have been tens of thousands rather than millions? Then they've not had that long to breed up the numbers of the population. I'd imagine we're talking about a lot of sparsely populated worlds on the whole?

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Monday, August 22, 2011 3:49 AM

CYBERSNARK

Earth is expected to top 7 billion this year, FWIW.

And never underestimate the human ability to spawn entire litters.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Monday, August 22, 2011 4:16 AM

GWEK

I would guess the population would be somewhere between 1 and 3 billion. Factoring in what DJD said about starting with a low "seed" population, there are "dozens of planets" and "hundreds of worlds" (been a while, but I think the number is 70+ planets, and 200 or 300 moons).

But don't think they're populated like modern day earth. The vast majority of them seem to have sparse settlers' populations (of a few hundred, a few thousand, even tens of thousands times a few hundred isn't a lot, relatively speaking).

The Core Worlds clearly have higher population density, but there is nothing to indicate overcrowding (on the Core Worlds, anyway), so they may also have relatively low population (indeed, population control may be an intentional Alliance/Blue Sun tactic). The Alliance worlds have a high education rate, and with higher education typically, historically, comes a lower birth rate.

Consider, finally, Miranda, which is basically a Core World out on the rim. I believe they say it has a population in the millions, primarily clustered in a half dozen to a dozen cities. Unlike the real world, I'd wager that on most Alliance-controlled worlds, once you get outside the city, there's not much life.

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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Monday, August 22, 2011 4:24 AM

PENNAUSAMIKE

According to the "Map of the 'Verse", the 2520 census pegs the population of the 'verse at 49.95 billion.

The "Map of the 'Verse" is an invaluable reference for fanfic writers, giving all the planets, moons and their locations.

Mike

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Monday, August 22, 2011 4:32 AM

PENNAUSAMIKE

Quote:
Originally posted by pennausamike:
According to the "Map of the 'Verse", the 2520 census pegs the population of the 'verse at 49.95 billion.

The "Map of the 'Verse" is an invaluable reference for fanfic writers, giving all the planets, moons and their locations.

Mike

Looking at the map,
the White Sun Core has a population of 39.5 billion,
the Red Sun has a population of 3.5 billion,
the Kalidaza system has a population of 932 million,
the Georgia system has a population of 6 billion,
and the Blue Sun system has a population of 18 million.

So just like the Old West, population pressure had a role in pushing settlers to the Rim.

Mike

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Monday, August 22, 2011 4:39 AM

GWEK

Well, Crikey! I stand very corrected! :)

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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Monday, August 22, 2011 4:42 AM

DJD

Should have checked....

There must have been some mighty big transport ships leaving Earth!

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Monday, August 22, 2011 6:52 AM

BRUCEPLUTO

Thanks for the info Mike!

And I agree with Cybersnark…..

Stands to reason that the verse’s population would well exceed what we’re looking at now here on this planet. If there is one thing that humans are good at, it’s making more humans. Ask your resident alien about that.

IMHO watching the television series, the planets and moons our small group of Firefly transport buddies land on are quiet numerous. This tells me that there is likely a rather large host of humanoids living on each world that Serenity visits. Even if that world seems void and unpopulated at the spot the space craft lands.

Wouldn’t seem worth the parliaments effort to start up terraforming if there were only going to be ten people roaming around the territory. A self sustaining population would have to number in the millions, or at least the high thousands.

I would grant to say that the core worlds have become over populated and the trick is to have folk venture out to the border and rim worlds by advertising a life with meaning (and hard work). Your average joe will not leave the comfort of a civilized community if not given the idea of a golden carrot waiting somewhere out on a deserted moon.

60 million was just a number that I pulled out of my …….hat. This tells me that every human element is under study. Since WW2 the agenda is to find out why people think the way they do, how they will react under certain circumstances, and what can be done to control them, can you say “ Blue Sun”?

Joss knows this and it is how he wrote Firefly…...any opinions?

BPZ

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Monday, August 22, 2011 8:10 AM

DJD

Well, its fiction and I'm not going to get too hung up on it but it would require a fairly massive seed population for the population to be that high in a mere 500 or so years from now. Maybe they transported genetic material rather than actual people and just grew a few million in tanks when they got there?? Several million people traveling at sub light speeds for hundreds of years.... Hey, it's like science fiction!

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011 3:08 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by djd:
Well, its fiction and I'm not going to get too hung up on it but it would require a fairly massive seed population for the population to be that high in a mere 500 or so years from now. Maybe they transported genetic material rather than actual people and just grew a few million in tanks when they got there?? Several million people traveling at sub light speeds for hundreds of years.... Hey, it's like science fiction!

How did there get to be 55 billion people in the Universe? Not necessarily by natural birth. Here is a real story from last week's newspaper about the cost of going to the stars followed by speculation based on The Message episode:

"People like Dr Tziolas say the technology already exists or will soon exist to send instruments and perhaps even people to nearby stars, although a human flight could cost hundred of trillions of dollars." - US dreams of sending humans to stars, Dennis Overbye, The New York Times www.deccanherald.com/content/184669/us-dreams-sending-humans-stars.htm
l

Trillions? No joke? People will expect something in exchange for their $100,000,000,000,000. A ride to the stars would be a good repayment. But if people won't live long enough to see starships lift-off from Earth, not to mention arrive at the 'Verse, people might accept a promise that their children will be born on another planet. How many of these promised children would there be?

I will guess a billion women will each send a hundred eggs to the stars, with the promise that half their eggs will grow to be outstanding people such as Inara in Joss Whedon's Universe. The other half will be Jaynes. For fan-fiction, Jayne and Inara can actually be embryos from Earth, not simply descended from Earthlings.

In The Message episode, do you recall Kaylee and Simon looking at the glass container with a space alien/cow fetus with 6 legs? If these promised children are treated as cattle and grown in a glass containers, there would be a population explosion. Could even get to 55 billion.

Unfortunately for the mental health of the promised children, they will be orphans. That would go a long way in explaining why the 'Verse is such a screwed up place.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:56 AM

BRUCEPLUTO

Howdy everyone. Thanks TWO for your input!

I didn’t know this thread would generate as much interest as it has. But I always enjoy hearing what other browncoats are thinking.

Anyway, the reason I asked the question was because it seems that in a system that has dozens of livable worlds (maybe hundreds) the number of folk populating the verse could be very high. I mean 7 billion people here on planet “Earth that Is” is an amount better than I can comprehend. Much less if we had several livable worlds in our solar system. Yepper I do realize it’s science fiction, but as for one who loves the unrestricting boundaries of writing sci/fi……science fiction could, after a while become science fact.

If one was to count all the people that have lived and died since the beginning of time…..well, I just can’t imagine that number.

Also, the verse created by Joss doesn’t explain too much of what happened on those ships that made it to the verse, or maybe those that maybe went to another system far, far away……The stories of what happened aboard those vessels could be interesting all by themselves.

Anyhoo, thanks to all that have responded to my question. It gives me a better understanding of what could be in the future.

BPZ

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