Worlds For Man - Part 3 - Earth

[jordan179]

Earth, as our homeworld, is already habitable. The problem is that our polluting activities are “de-terraforming” her, rendering her less habitable and destroying the biological riches that are our world’s evolutionary heritage. Our immediate task in managing the Earth’s future is to slow, stop, and eventually reverse this process of

Comments

[jordan179]

I am certain that at least some of any new things humans build will be "tacky as hell." I doubt all of them will be, though, and after having them for a few decades to a century, we will develop all sorts of traditions surrounding the lifestyle :)

[jordan179]

First of all, we still transmit traditions in families. Secondly, immortality wouldn't mean that no new children would ever be born, simply that the birth rate would slow toward the rate of population decline (through emigration) and expansion of available habitat (through the construction of new Milespires and Deeps). Thirdly, culture can change even with a slower turnover in population, since humans can change throughout their lives.

[jordan179]

The general term for this is "post-Singularity," and though I haven't read that book, I've read a lot of stories about such societies, ranging from Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time to John C. Wright's Golden Age.

Fusion

[anonymous]

Re: Fusion:

Here is one promising technology that is not getting the backing it needs to make or break it:

Bussard Fusion Reactor
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion

So I have decided to do an end run around the government by designing an open source fusion test reactor.

Any one care to help? You can start here:

IEC Fusion Newsgroup
IEC Fusion Technology blog

M. Simon

[banner]

I do not believe it is possible for us to pollute the planet to such an extent as to kill ourselves off, we just don't have that kind of power. Plus pollution is pretty negligable these days. Well at least here in the USA it is. 30 years ago it was getting pretty bad, since then I think we now have the cleanest country on the planet (well except for holes like San Francisco).

Hello, friend!

[last_servant]

I'm afraid I have to do a mild critique about some of the aspects of this schema, even while liking some of the major points.

Short-term:I like the way you handle energy, but there are several problems with it. First, the necessary economic upheaval that would happen if short-term. Crazed Muslims are bad enough, but antagonizing a region of terrorism is kind of dangerous

Re: Hello, friend!

[zaimoni]

... Earth most likely one of the few complex bioplanets in the universe ...
At this proper time since the Big Bang. Let me borrow a heuristic analysis from Francis Crick's refutation of panspermia (Charles Pelligrino, Ghosts of Vesuvius).

Tacitly assuming that an AI-search abiogenesis process does emerge from the laws of physics: the solar system has about 50% more astronomical metals (elements heavier than lithium) than is typical for a star its age.

(~4.7 billion years since last supernova, per absence of natural isotopes not generated locally with a half-life of 470 million years or less.)

So it seems plausible that Earth is among the first worlds with iron sulfide based metabolism. But, it is unclear how long a "snowball earth" period is actually needed.

• Oxygen photosynthesis: estimated 2.7 billion years ago
• Iron precipitation to hematite/oxygen crisis: band starting estimated 2.45 billion years ago
• Snowball Earth (equatorial glaciation): estimated 2.4 billion years - 647 million years, latter date has hard geology marker (

[zaimoni]

Obviously the isotopes are typoed; should read 13C and 12C wherever needed.

Re: Hello, friend!

[jordan179]

First, the necessary economic upheaval that would happen if short-term. Crazed Muslims are bad enough, but antagonizing a region of terrorism is kind of dangerous.

By "short term" I mean over the next several decades, rather than years. The Arabs will sell their oil to progressively poorer regions of the world, or to the last holdouts against nuclear power, before nuclear power becomes so widespread that oil is useful mainly as feedstock.

By the end of the current crisis (the Terror Wars) (*) the principle will be firmly established (probably on the smoking, neutron-emitting ruins of Iran and Pakistan) that backing terrorists is equivalent to an act of war. As a result, terrorism will be subject to the same dynamics of deterrence as any other military strategy.

Buying something one doesn't need from a weaker Power or group of Powers to placate them is a very foolish form of appeasement. I see very little political support for doing this in the Developed World