[Enclose the earth in a photovoltaic shell]
> Now that we have the general idea of how this goes, I think it would be better
> to have *many* of these kind of structures, which keep expanding and making
> more room for life, rather than just one. This would allow for more diverse
> types of biospheres and would be a good safeguard, in case something goes
> horribly wrong in one of them.
The idea of building a lot of smaller biospheres makes a lot more
sense. There won't need to be global co-coperation between countries
(which is very tedious) and the scale of engineering will be more
manageable. Every biosphere could be it's own sovereign country -
regardless of size. These could be connected with tunnels which are
constructed by mutual funding of the biospheres involved. Gathereing
solar power from the outer atmosphere (and beyond) will have to wait
a while 'cause the biospheres will first expand more laterally than
vertically.
Asimov's Foundation novel sketch a nice picture of a planet that is
5km deep in buildings - all the way around. I've always liked time
lapse photographs of plants growing, imagine watching planet earth
light up and expand spreading it's tentacles to the outer reaches of
the solar system and transforming all the dead matter into
dynamically evolving life... (gooseflesh up my spine :-) )
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Stephen de Vries phen@wwg3.uovs.ac.za
http://www.geocities.com/athens/7415
Don't worry! I've got a geiger counter in my car.