Well.. that's IT, then..

Post #331,078 by Ashton 8/10/10 5:15:13 AM Reply	Well.. that's IT, then.. Hawking's momma didn't have no stupid kiddies. But we sort of knew that, at least ever since the (mentioned) Cuban Missile Crisis of '62 -- hell I Knew that sometime in '68: when the slope of ""progress"" -- especially if it were to come from the US! -- turned [-] and has remained in that direction, of devolution. (And, at current corporate rates of $100K USD/pound just to ship stuff to the moon - Fat Chance of that Alpha Centauri Express, weighing millions of pounds for each ship in the flotilla/aertilla? fostering 300 generations of stir-crazy bitchy, twitchy homo-saps ... only to arrive and find that its planetary family can't get below the boiling point of Plumbum in the noon-day sun (that's Lead, to the proles.) End the Suspense!! -- Vote Repo-Taliban in '12 (and '14, '16) -- if the street fighting in cities over 5000 pop has subsided enough for a '14 "election" of any kind. I could almost see voting for Palin in 2012 on the grounds that this sorry ratfucking excuse for a republic, this savage, smirking, predatory empire deserves her. Bring on the Rapture, motherfuckers! -- via RC
Post #331,080 by static 8/10/10 5:58:16 AM Reply	Science fiction writers have been exploring that for decades With a huge variety of ideas... Getting out of our gravity well is hideously expensive, as you have said. But a significant part of that is government regulations, limiting a lot of possibilities. This problem comes up in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (as well as writings from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) and there were a lot of social issues associated with that. Robinson eventually had a fabulously wealthy patron who funded a lot of development. Hmm. There are technological issues, too. It is enormously expensive to support our kind of life in space. In a rare appearance, Anne McCaffrey briefly explored what safety systems an interplanetary craft might need (her story featured sabotage, too). You think a jet airplane is complicated? What 'till they build one to get to Mars! But there are social issues. I don't believe our current society would survive in a generation ship. There is a brilliant short story in the first edition of Aurealis called "I Still Call Australia Home" by George Turner that shows this. It is about a generation ship that sets off looking for a planet to colonise. It finds several that are close, but not close enough. So it heads back to Earth: centuries after it set off. Due to relativistic speeds, the inhabitants run a society similar to today. And the ship is overcrowded, to say the least. Meanwhile, Earth cultures have regressed and have a simpler lifestyle, with lower population. It is radically different and the space people don't belong and aren't welcome. They want space to be themselves, but those left behind have realized they have to look after the planet. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #331,082 by Ashton 8/10/10 6:14:23 AM Reply	Your last sentence.. dooms all the What-Ifs? artfully conceived since the '50s "Earth Abides" (a paperback copy of which my Mater had annotated, on cover, for me to read; damn she was smart.) We aren't There, and there appears to be too-little time for the species to reach anything like adulthood. (But I don't see the 'whimper' thing happening ... just self-rightously inflicted blood n'gore. As usual.) ie. :-/ I could almost see voting for Palin in 2012 on the grounds that this sorry ratfucking excuse for a republic, this savage, smirking, predatory empire deserves her. Bring on the Rapture, motherfuckers! -- via RC
Post #331,087 by static 8/10/10 8:20:59 AM Reply	Yeah... Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.

Welcome to IWETHEY!