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There was a throwaway line about this in one of Larry Niven's Ringworld novels. The Ringworld was an artificial structure, so had no fossil fuel deposits. The p

by 100k 12y ago

There was a throwaway line about this in one of Larry Niven's Ringworld novels. The Ringworld was an artificial structure, so had no fossil fuel deposits. The protagonist muses that it must be hard for the inhabitants to bootstrap civilization, because they have to go from alcohol-based biomass fuels straight to nuclear fusion.

aeturnum 12y ago
It's also a theme in his The Mote in God's Eye.
- arbitrage 12y ago
  And Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    But Farmers book solved it in an 'act of god' like manner by using lightning and something akin to a high voltage supercapacitor used to catch the lightning.