Glass windows

On Aug 14, 2006, at 20:52 UTC, Douglas May wrote:

> The biggest weakness of glass is that they don't make very good
> radiation shields. O'neill's design called for mirrors shining
> through glass, but in our everyday lives, we wouldn't need "real"
> sunlight. In fact, someday there will be interstellar colonies for
> whom there can be no "real" light, only "artificial" light.

Well, to be fair, even in interstellar space you could produce an image
of a star as big across as our view of the Sun, with a sufficiently
large mirror.

Not saying it's a practical idea, just that it's possible. For
practicality, I tend to agree with you that artificial light (and even
a whole artificial sky) is likely to be preferred by most people, when
all costs and benefits are taken into account.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...