>From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>
>I'll simply comment that "terraforming" is an *obsolete* concept
>in an era of nanotechnology. It is one of those memes that when
>invented sounded like a really good idea and continues to exist because
>of the romantic visions we have for the pioneer/explorer and freedom
>from governments we find burdensome.
>
>If you argue for terraforming, you have to justify the following --
>"Lets Keep people confined to gravity wells, instead of giving
>*every* single person a 'world ship'". Why? The usable mass in
>the solar system is ~10^16 kg/person, or roughly the mass of
>the asteroid Eros (~24 km diameter).
Also, I can't see how we'd manage a comfortable climate on any planet which
didn't share Earth's orbit. Considering how uncomfortably hot it is in,
say, the Sahara and how unbearably cold it is in Antarctica -- and both
these regions are on a planet which is an *ideal* distance from the sun for
our comfort.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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