Time-scales

On Thursday 04 September 2003 13:36, Al Globus wrote:
(...)
> This will, I think, happen. Again, it is by choice not by external
> forces.
(...)

Now that I got what you meant by "self-imposed" pressures in your previous
email, I agree; I'm sorry, originally I thought that you were talking about
genetic manipulation only.

However, I would not always call those self-imposed pressures "choices". There
may be pressures that will not be exactly a matter of choice, but economics.
A probably not-so-realistic example: suppose that the cost of building a
zero-g, inflatable colony is significantly lower than building a rotating,
rigid one; that will strongly push the development of zero-g bubbles rather
than spinning cans, and at some time people will not have much "choice" if
they want to move to space, as much as people nowadays don't have the choice
of buying a five-wheeled car.

But of course you could argue that economics is not an "external" force
because it is human-generated. I would still argue that it is external
because, although it is human-generated, is is hardly human-controlled. :-)

Lucio