As Jed recently stated, "All things in moderation" is indeed a good thing to keep in mind.
Never the less, Aesthetics, as we all know, is often in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I think being forced to view of a multi-mile high solar tower capable of generating power comparable to what a nuclear plant could produce would be truly inspirational. They could easily become viewed as technological monuments of epic proportions instead of as visual blights. They might become the ultimate defining symbol of technology wisely applied in the beginning of the 21st century. Solar Towers could become a daily reminder to all who viewed them how vast amounts of power can be extracted naturally from the environment without raping it. Of course, if ZPE and/or CF is just around the corner all bets are likely off. In the meantime, there's a point to my madness. I don't think it would hurt the population one whit to acquire the same kind of inspirational collective industrious focus John Kennedy had been able to inspire within us of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Constructing mile high Solar Towers is just the kind of VISUALLY inspirational focus that could help unite all sorts of competing factors within our society particularly if a sufficient number of politicians had the vision too see what could ultimately result from their endeavors. This might sound incredibly naive and totally redundant particularly within vortex-l but I truly sense an unconscious but growing desire among many in the population that we really REALLY need to start seriously looking for alternate forms of energy. They feel desperate and helpless not knowing what they can do other than conserve their resources. Meanwhile, most suspect that their personal efforts in conserving are only delaying! the inevitable. It is precisely during these moments of a tangibly growing collective crisis when the population is unconsciously seeking a solution to fend off impending doom. This is precisely the time they would easily WELCOME the idea of focusing their collective nervous energy on the equivalent of another Apollo-like project. The visual inspiration of building Solar Towers could easily become the focal point leading us away from our darkest fears of witnessing a civilization slowing dieing under its own weight. Keep those nervous little hands busy! And like the Apollo project, I can only imagine what kind of spin off technologies might result as well. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
