Digest Number 713

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 08:05:01 EDT
From: Ravenart@...
Subject: Re: Habitat Population Control

> I don't think it's a big problem, because as long as the fact about the
> limits is communicated upfront from the get-go to any new settlers, the
people
> themselves will decided how to respond to that.

Hi Carl,
Sorry to say that I don't find this response very satisfying - in fact I
thought I had specifically excluded it in my post. Leaving a potentially
vital issue like this completely to our descendants, rather than dealing
with it now, seems to be deliberately indulging ourselves in a lack of
foresight. We haven't yet even got a solid set of specs on the pressure
hull yet, so NOW is the time to start designing in potential solutions (if
possible) - If we refuse to do so, or even consider what steps could be
taken, then we may be leaving (for example) a very messy re-engineering
problem to our sucessors that could be trivially solved in initial
construction.

> It dosen't take government to
> deal with that. It take free-flowing price to send signs to the market
that the
> habital is becoming crowded. Even the market is changing in NYC under the
> sight as stock market, the last major industry, is disappearing into
cyberspace,
> reducing the need for large office space which is forcing many owners to
> change their office building into apartments and condos.

With all due resepect, you don't seem to be looking far enough ahead.
When all of the offices have been converted to ultra high density tenements
with families of ten sleeping in what we would call broom closet sized
spaces, and your life support system is running itself to death to support a
population twice as large as the absolute
we-had-an-emergency-and-had-to-take-on-refugees-and-survivors limit; then
what? What business mechanism do you propose? Is it even possible to
formulate a rational (and enforcable) population control policy at that
point?

> Botton line, we don't need governments, we need visionary businessmen who
can
> look at problem and see gold for which they may earn by offering
solutions.

I look forward to hearing your insights on this.

> Carl E. Mullin
> visionary artist and entrepreneur
> homo asteralis

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