From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Feb 06 2003 - 16:27:59 MST
Many tbanks for this, Anders, you've given me a bit of useful stuff to think
about, which is what I needed. Btw, this is for some scenes in a novel I am
working on based upon the Terminator movies...the third and last book of a
trilogy that begins where Terminator 2 ends. (Note however that it is a
different version of what happens after Terminator 2 from the new movie
Terminator 3, which will be released in July.)
The Terminator scenario is doubtless not very popular on this list, for
obvious reasons. It depicts what is, in effect, a very negative
technological singularity. But I have at least introduced a certain amount
of propaganda in favour of genetic enhancement in my reinterpretation of the
mythos. :)
Russ B
http://www.users.bigpond.com/russellblackford/
>From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: PERIPHERAL - bio/ecological query
>Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:18:43 +0100
>
>On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 01:44:12PM +1100, Russell Blackford wrote:
>
> > IF it happened like this, what would the major tropical/equatorial
> > forests of places like Brazil look like after, say, 15-30 years?
>
>Looking at old ecological data might be helpful. Unfortunately little
>is known. A popular theory seem to be that the "natural" state of the
>Amazon during the last ice age was mostly a svannah, with isolated
>(but still sizeable) forest refuges at the edges. However, this
>picture has been challenged:
>http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/1996/Oct96/r100296.html
>
>So, given the current uncertainty any climate ought to be possible.
>However, a darkening of the sky would likely kill off many trees. If
>this was just a few months seedlings would start sprouting almost
>immediately after (and during) the removal of the canopy, and they
>would within a few years (if the climate remained good enough) sprout
>and start to become new trees.
>
> > Presumably they would die but a lot of the big trees would remain
> > standing. What sort of new vegetation could we expect to grow in what
>waa
> > left of these jungles?
>
>What about this possibility: the old trees largely die, to be replaced
>by opportunists and stranglers like figs. The colder climate makes
>many of these fail, leaving a sparser ecosystem dominated by vertical
>"weeds" that use the remains of the trees to climb and get nutrients.
>The major loss of canopy would destroy many of the ecological niches
>for the cool unique animals, but seed-gathering birds, ants,
>wood-eating insects and the animals that prey on them would certainly
>remain.
>
>I think you have a fairly broad range of possibilities to play with
>here; you can fit the forest environment to the scenario you are
>setting up.
>
>--
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
>asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
>GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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