Bernal Sphein Cyberspace

> Ok then, perhaps a Sim City sort of game. The Player tries to build
> an orbital colony. Perhaps we can still include a walk through mode.
We should. I see no reason why not. The mayor walks through the
habitat, and if most people smile at him he knows that he is doing a
good job for the population, at least.

> Perhaps civic unrest could be referred to without being displayed.
I suppose the mayor would have to do a very bad job then. Or else
be not elected, but hired for the job by investors who have forgotten
the Boston Tea Party ---

> For an orbital colony there would be decisions made based on Tax
> rates.
That depends on the economy of the habitat. It could be, for early
habitats which are extensions of the Earth society more than entities
with their own identity and purpose, that people are paid in free
housing, energy, food, clothes, medical services, education, and not
much else in the habitat - but run up a big payroll on the Earth,
taxed by the Earth governments to which they belong. They can then
use this big payroll to import consumer goods from the Earth, or save
it for retirement in a more money-based economy - the Earth, or the
much larger habitats of the future.
Then the mayor would not tax the inhabitants, though he would have
to make decisions on production and allocation of goods - if the
inhabitants decide that they are tired of cabbage and would like more
raspberries, and the potato crop is less than expected, he has to deal
with that.

> Energy prices would fluxuate which would effect income from the
> SPSs,
This would effect the habitat only indirectly if the habitat sells
powersats rather than retaining ownership of them, selling the
electricity.

> and controlled Fusion could be invented,
That will hardly change electricity prices in the short run,
because very probably fusion will be very expensive. It has been
twenty years into the future for thirty years now, and it is expected
that if it becomes a reality, fusion power plants will have to be so
large that one will supply the entirety of northern Europe with
electricity. Or maybe it was the entirety of Europe.

> there are defense issues, not all of which invove a human opponent,
> but most of them would.
There would hardly be such issues in orbit, unless you include
terrorist attacks in "defence issues". That, OTOH, will probably be a
very real concern, with both individual crackpots, mad cults like that
of Shoko Asahara, and hostile entities going for any high-profile
target. Someone, possibly Osama bin Laden, killed two hundred
innocent African civilians because he expected that the same blasts
would kill some of his designated enemies - US federal employees. A
one track mad mind like that can also destroy the first attempt at
industrialization of space in furtherance of his grievances on the
Earth.

> One might increase the thickness of the Bernal sphere's outer
> hull to provide additional protection from meteor impacts. There
> may be competing orbital settlements, realistically you cannot
> rule out combat between them, but wars can be resolved abstractly.
I think that combat between them can be ruled out, for the same
reason war between the USA and the EU is now a ludicrous idea. It
would be otherwise if every petty dictator were able to build orbital
settlements.

Jon L. Beck.