Don, Ringworld was one of the books I was thinking about when I mentioned SF....great book! It has been almost 40 years since I read it...wow!
On Jul 30, 1:14 am, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > Sci-Fi gets the creative juices flowing. It may be time to reread this > classic. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld > > dj > > > > On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 2:48 AM, iam deheretic<[email protected]> wrote: > > I think to live in space or it is going to take a lot of refining mm massive > > growing rooms to process the carbon dioxide to keep the air breathable and > > yes yes oxygen is easily extractable from water as all it takes is a little > > electricity. > > > At best it is not an easy process but the resources are avaliable and in > > the beginning it will not be easy, but it would become easier . Material > > wise a single asteroid can contain more iron than the entire production on > > earth for several years. the different metals and materials can be > > determined by radio telemetry (I think that is the word) it is possible to > > see what is there electronically , so you can pick and chose just what you > > harvest. > > > And it will take people much smarter than me. and I do think todays Space SF > > is harmful to the concept because interstellar space travel is not practical > > with todays science. living on the moon or mars is doable but impractical > > because of the gravity thing, but gravity or artificial gravity can be > > created by centrifugal force and be controlled easily to simulate earths > > gravity. The easily accessible asteroid belt make for an ideal solution with > > its mineral rich diversification . > > > Incidentally some of the massive clouds (light years across) are mostly made > > of ammonia now figure that one. > > Allan > > > On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 2:41 AM, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > >> Fran, thanks for the education. I did speak quite hastily, didn’t I? > > >> Perhaps, even though I spent decades digesting the best SF to be > >> found, I lack vision. Still, given the current human condition/ > >> situation, I just don’t see how any set of humans we got to, say, the > >> asteroid belt, would do better than those of us here on earth. By this > >> I mean that fairly quickly they would be using up resources and > >> polluting the cosmos let alone other aspects of being human, like mini- > >> wars.…but more importantly, technologically I don’t see it happening > >> before we exhaust earth. > > >> On Jul 29, 2:50 pm, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > On 29 Jul., 20:03, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote:> For > >> > the record, the above was written by fran and not me. > > >> > > And, yes, air, food, water...none are found in the asteroid belt. > > >> > Sorry, orn, not true for two out of three. Water and the gases needed > >> > to constitute a breathable atmosphere are there. In fact, you really > >> > only need oxygen, which can be easily won from water - the resultant > >> > hydrogen left over could be used, among other things, as a propellant, > >> > or source of energy. What we probably really need is the technology > >> > for controlled fusion to get a lot of this going. > > >> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining > > >> > In the absence of FTL travel we seem to be limited in the foreseeable > >> > future to the solar system. The scenario which Allan presents > >> > (habitats in the asteroid belt) seems quite possible. The belt is a > >> > rich source for all sorts of anorganic material - the economics of > >> > extracting increasingly limited resources on our planet will make such > >> > a step increasingly attractive in the next couple of hundred years. > >> > Despite all sorts of philosophical, ethical and practical objections, > >> > it seems likely to me that the genetical engineering djinn is already > >> > truly out of the bottle, leading to possible applications in the area > >> > of hydroponics and synthetic food production, perhaps even human > >> > genetic engineering with respect to problematic aspects of > >> > weightlessness. > > >> > I'm not saying that that many of the possible paths of development > >> > don't contain aspects which I, personally, might find disquieting. > >> > But, given the human characteristics of monkey inquisitiveness and our > >> > propensity to take risks to make a potential buck - as well as more > >> > noble motives - I do see it as probable that we will go this way. We > >> > will probably not see it - our grandchildren probably will. > > >> > Francis > > > -- > > ( > > ) > > I_D Allan- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
