Notes on Digest 1012

Omar Vega wrote in Msg #1:

How do we convince the greens?

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Steve Long answered in Msg #16:

"(Tell them) that the least-damaging way to quickly reduce the
strain that we place upon Earth's ecosystem is to give humanity
somewhere else to go and a really good reason to do it."
-Remind them as Dave Logsdon [ Msg#12] did That:

"The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human
race to keep all it's eggs in." Robert A. Heinlein, 20 July, 1976

-and in that same vein, Why not tell them:

-That The Diaspora is inevitable and overdue.

-That we have to get away from Mother Earth so as to
preserve it in an optimal natural state..

[fit mainly for vacationing colonists ;-]

-To send us some of their experts in ecology to make
the Colonies viable and earthlike.

i.e.,

-Tell them we need their help! [ heh, heh ] :-]

P.S.

Did you know that some plants [e.g., the Magnolia, and,
I believe, the Black Walnut] will poison the earth around
them to prevent their offspring from growing too close!

Tell them humanity is like that, ;-]

[tho we are just now finding it out]

Tell them We are the agents of Mother Earth, that we must
get away to create New "Earths".

[The logic of the simile may be a bit flawed, but maybe
they won't notice ;-]

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Collin R. Skocik wrote in msg#10 :

Anybody here read Rendezvous With Rama?

The most interesting thing [to me] in R. W. R., and in Greg Bear's
"Eon"& "Eternity" was the the luminous tube running down the center.

This obviates the need for awkward mirrors & windows, and doubles
the useful land area.

-But how can it be done? -and in a way not harmful to health..?

P.S. I believe there may be ways of making the internal appearance
somewhat more earthlike to the inhabitants.

P.P.S. The Rama series should have remained a "Trilogy"

The last one was a real disappointment.

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Steve Long said in Msg #16:

I think the Ringworld conceptualized by Larry Niven ... is a better
idea for a permanent place to live.

I agree, and there might be several concentric rings [at an
angle to each other] so as to make better use of the sun.

Unfortunately, the variety of "Unobtanium" with which Ringworld
was made had a tensile strength that we are unlikely ever to
duplicate.

RKH