I've been out in the void for a while now and I'm starting to notice a misconception others have about humanity. Out here, many would call us a rising star. Some claim we're slowly working our way out of a long dark age. This couldn't be further from the truth.
Our infrastructure collapsed when we left earth, and it's been a smoldering pile of rubble ever since. To accomplish anything of note, we need to get enough people on board. There are so few of us left that it took nearly the entire population to get the dry docks working in Caydie's Cradle. We don't even have a means of establishing infrastructure. Just look at our education system.
To truly thrive, we need a way to share information. The archive has massive amounts of data. My father, The Archivist sifts through it at a constant rate. Since the archive opened to the public, his attention has been divided. While educating to the best of his knowledge, he loses processing power and time, leaving information out of reach. You can't teach what you don't know. In other words, we have no education system.
Education
When what remained of humanity found Safeharbor, the arks carried the best we had to offer; engineers, physicists, doctors, you name it, we had it. As refugees made their way to our new home, this pool of knowledge grew smaller with every boost to our population. Many who came to this planet on dilapidated ships lacked the skills and knowledge needed to help. They were cooks, receptionists, factory workers. While vital for the world to function, they didn't add much to solve the problem.
That was a long time ago, and we've done our best to counter it. STEM education is widespread and now considered common knowledge, but this only gets you so far. The closest thing to a school or university we have is The Wayfarer training facility, which only teaches what Wayfarers need to do their job, a Jack of all trades kind of education.
Specialists, those who are truly experts in their field, offer seminars and reach out for assistants to teach in exchange for employment, but given how few the earth-born humans are, their number dwindles. The only way to specialize in any field and further one's education is to be lucky enough for someone to teach you or to do it yourself.
Love it! A really interesting take on how knowledge decline would have happened, and I really like the interspersal (interspersion? something) of the story. Some really nice details in here :D
Thanks so much!