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| Re: Zartman forgot one | |
| Posted By: Doug Zartman <doug@igetenoughspam.bungie.com> | Date: 1/14/00 3:23 p.m. |
In Response To: Zartman forgot one (Otokam) > In his rant on BTV day 4, he talks about space colonization
Thanks for an interesting post. Oh, more than one - there are LOTS of organizations out there besides the three that I mentioned (2 minutes isn't enough to do more than scratch the surface of the topic). I also forgot to mention that the January 2000 issue of Wired has a pretty interesting article, "Who Needs NASA?" which covers many of the private ventures trying to make outer space more accessible, and their links. > I bought the book as a joke, but it actually brings up some very
I've got that. (I published a paper on the sociology of space colonization, and in the course of that research got familiar with much of the literature). The bulk of the space colonization literature is like that, a mixture of hard science and truly interesting, plausible designs, with more sensationalist and cheesy depictions of future utopias. There's a great book which takes a more serious look at the topic: "Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience" by Finney and Jones (heh - not that Jones). There are others - I've been meaning to put up a page about all this... >Anyway, I highly
Yeah, the Mars blunders were disappointing, but then Columbus lost 2/3s of his crew! Anyone care about them? If colonization is going to happen, the people doing it will have to be much more tolerant of loss of life and equipment, because disasters will happen. That's another reason why NASA won't be doing it. As long as all space development is in the hands of NASA, it will continue to be frustrating for proponents of colonization. The colonization of offplanet environments is not going to be paid for by the US taxpayer, and NASA has too many constituencies to appease to be able to focus on one mission like that. I've got a lot of respect for Dan Goldin, and NASA projects like Hubble have greatly expanded our understanding of the universe, but colonization will require a different kind of organization. In writing this, I'm thinking "is this relevant to Halo?" Sorta. One thing the 20th century taught us is that science fiction does not stay fiction for long. The idea of orbiting satellites was first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 - now they're a part of everyday life in the Information Age. It's inevitable that human civilization will leave the Earth, and I'm confident that eventually we will encounter other forms of life. Whether they'll be as hostile as the Covenant remains to be seen, but no harm in being prepared... ;-) Doug
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| Replies: |
| Zartman forgot one | Otokam | 1/13/00 9:32 p.m. |
| Re: Zartman forgot one | Otokam | 1/13/00 9:33 p.m. |
| Re: Zartman forgot one | Dr. Nick | 1/13/00 10:41 p.m. |
| WinMars | Nemesis | 1/14/00 10:43 a.m. |
| WinMars; Part2 (OT) | 8Delicious | 1/14/00 10:58 a.m. |
| Re: Zartman forgot one | Doug Zartman | 1/14/00 3:23 p.m. |
| Re: Zartman forgot one | Stall the space fantasy, get it right here first | 1/16/00 6:21 a.m. |
| Re: Zartman forgot one | Sir Galahad | 1/16/00 7:37 a.m. |
| Space fantasy | RL | 1/16/00 9:59 a.m. |
| But... | Ben Schodek | 1/16/00 2:09 p.m. |
| Re: But... | Dispatcher | 1/16/00 6:03 p.m. |
| Re: But... | Otokam | 1/16/00 9:58 p.m. |
| Nah. | Xian | 1/16/00 3:40 p.m. |
| Re: Nah.ot | 8Delicious | 1/17/00 1:58 p.m. |
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