Rotating Mirrors

To Andy Nimmo: Please provide the exact reference to the article you read that said that the Bernal Sphere and the Stanford Torus would be unworkable psychologically. If present on the Web, please give the URL. Thanks.Ron****** arlin@...10/24/2001 08:16 PM GMTPlease respond to spacesettlers To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com cc: bcc: Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Rotating Mirrors Ignore previous message--I was not done editing.--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Andy Nimmo" wrote:>but please do forget forever about both the Bernal Sphere and the >Stanford doughnutAnyone who wishes to remain on Earth is free to forget them.> Hi George, > > Total agreement that humans are only adaptable so far. You have no clue *how* far!There was an experiment in which subjects were required towear glasses which flipped the view upside-down. In abouta week they were reacting as if their vision was totallynormal. Their vision centers had rewired to "re-flip" theimage! It took them the same amount of time to "unlearn"after the glasses were removed. Persons in a torus orsphere will regard the *first* view as somewhat intimidating,but as soon as their muscles reward a successful walk, theywill have begun learning that a curved-looking floor is level.In a week, large surfaces that *don't* curve will look strange.> However, I don't think the psychological objections to the Stanford > torus had anything to do with the angles of the Sun. What they did > have to do with was the perception of the angle of the floor. In > either a Stanford torus or a Bernal Sphere, certain types of > humans - > pessimists - would regard every floor as an upward slope, while > others - optimists - would regard every floor as a downward slope. > As all of those folk would be presented with similar slopes every day it > would not take long for real mental irritation to build up. No, just mental adaptation.> Given time, this would lead to bloodshed without proper reason. Rediculous. Colorblindness is a *real* perceptual difference thatdoes not require violence. Difficulty-of-slope is just an interpretation.> This would not be the case in a cylindrical habitat.Why not? What's different with a cylinder?Yours, Arlin