Re: SPACE: Beyond Apollo (was: a to-do list for the next century)

From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Mon Apr 03 2000 - 07:51:14 MDT


Robert Bradbury wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Apr 2000 GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
> > Robert, just out of curiosity (i.e. wanting to put off disassembling Mercury
> > and Venus until we've had a chance to really look them over) and a sense of
> > aesthetic nostalgia, do you think you could do your thing with some other
> > matter . . . at least for a while?

> I'll buy the "aesthetic nostalgia" argument, but can you come
> up with a "rational" argument for leaving useful computronium
> in a nonuseful form at the bottom of a gravity well?

I think you slightly missed the point. The argument isn't for leaving
it in a nonuseful form *forever*, just for long enough so we can
catalog what nature produced - then we can exploit the resources.
Sort of like cataloging a rainforest's species before cutting the forest
down to make room for certain human activities, except that reformatting
Mercury et al would likely be more sustainable than some of the current
replacements for rain forests.



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