Welcome to Jurassic Habitat.

--- In spacesettlers, Joe Strout wrote:

> Yes, I've had the same thought. The Earth had a wonderfully
> rich ecosystem in the dinosaur age, and I've love to see it
> recreated. A space habitat is a sensible place to do that.
> I'd prefer to have it as a conservation park, rather than a
> tourist habitat, but I suppose you could do a bit of both if
> it helps pay the bills.

Absolutely. Maybe two habs for conservation for each one for tourists.

> But as you say, this is a far-future project, when there is
> so much wealth around that a few trillion here or there is
> chump change.

I feel another story coming on. This one probably won't even have any naked high school girls, but hey, dinosaurs are good too.

> Since we're thinking on that time scale, I've also thought
> that conservation would be a sensible use of terraforming.
> I see no need for humans to live at the bottom of steep
> gravity wells, but if we could make Mars or Venus habitable
> for dinosaurs -- well, why not? We could turn back the
> evolutionary clock, kick it off again, wait a few million
> years (perhaps providing a small nudge now and then), and
> see if dinosauroids ever develop civilization. THAT would
> be a long-term project worth doing!

Here's one nudge right off the bat: the lower gravity.

> (When people tell me they wouldn't want to live forever
> because they'd get too bored, I smile and nod... and can't
> relate at all.)

Me neither. And I don't really have all that exciting a life, but enough is in it that it's well worth living.