In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:09:27 -0400: Hi, [snip] >It is a little difficult to imagine how we might pay for this kind of >"trade." How could this be a commercial transaction in any sense?
Obviously the only system that would work is barter. IOW payment in kind. BTW such a system will effectively have to wait at least until FTL communications are achieved. Actual interstellar travel will be rare, and restricted to those that wish to study other worlds at first hand in order to acquire knowledge that is not readily traded. e.g. I can imagine that any given race might be cautious about telegraphing their DNA into the cosmos, lest it be used to create biological weapons (the only sort worth deploying at interstellar distances.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
