<mix...@bigpond.com> wrote:
> BTW such a system will effectively have to wait at least until FTL > communications are achieved. I'm with St. Albert on this. I doubt that FTL communication or travel is possible. Anyway, what I wrote is predicated on that assumption. > Actual interstellar travel will be rare . . . Even the concept of "barter" is cloudy when there is physical contact between the parties. It is hard to imagine a television producer on Earth saying: "I've had it with those people at Alpha centauri! We sent them five miniseries last year, and they sent us only one in return. We're not broadcasting anything more in their direction until they pay up." Even if the producer felt that way, the programs arriving on earth would have left Alpha centauri five years earlier, and there would be no way of knowing how much is in the pipeline. You cut back broadcasts from Earth and two years later, even before the people at Alpha centauri learn you are upset, you get 8 broadcasts from them. It would be impossible to coordinate or balance the books. That's with a star 5 light years away. The ones that are 20 years away, you get to make one business decision during your entire career, since it takes 40 years for them to respond to your new marketing program or your proposed new sales contract. Even 5 years would be ridiculously slow. In this part of the galaxy stars are no closer than ~5 LY. Really, the only way to work it is to throw the information at them for free, with no expected benefit or return on investment on your end. For intellectual property, they sure can't pay royalties. On the other hand, they can't undersell you or outsource your workforce. Not that there will be any human workers . . . A civilization capable of interstellar travel would surely have perfected robots enough to replace all human workers. Humans would make decisions only. Really, it is hard to know what humans would do with such advanced technology. Life may seem pointless, as Orwell pointed out in "The Road to Wigan Pier." - Jed
