Re: The good ship Extro 1

From: cryofan@mylinuxisp.com
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 18:00:47 MDT

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    "Michael S. Lorrey" <mlorrey@yahoo.com> said:

    >
    > [quote from: cryofan@mylinuxisp.com on 2003-06-02 at 14:28:58]
    >
    > Hmmm. On the carrier I was on there was no hotbunking with a complement of
    5K
    > men (Kitty hawk, built in the 60s). But it is possible there was
    hotbunking
    > in an earlier carrier. Yes, the compartments often had as many as 100
    people
    > in them, and the beds were stacked 3
    deep.
    >
    > As far as the viability of such a scheme...with extropian type people?
    YIKES!
    > THat would be a disaster. We are not all that sociable. I myself had
    a
    > helluva time being confined that way with so many people. THe ones
    who
    > actually like it are very sociable
    people.
    >
    >
    > My original estimate was obviously somewhat off the cuff. The carrier would
    > obviously have no need of so much flight support equipment or manpower.
    Didn't
    > know what the original compliment was, my statement was shooting in the
    dark.
    >
    > If we cut manpower to 500, then single bunk cabins should be de rigeur. If
    > we can eliminate lots of unneeded military and flight ops equipment, then
    > cabin size would increase significantly. At 500, buy in would average at
    > $20k. Smaller cabins could be let to those wishing to make lots of sweat
    > equity contributions (i.e. chipping and painting, etc).
    >
    > Then lets imagine a fraction of cabins would be let as time-shares by the
    > month. $2k per month buy-in is a fantastic time-share rate.
    >
    > Then we have to deal with operational costs. This obviously depends on the
    > sort of propulsion that would be used. Current installation would be fuel
    > hungry. One idea I have is that with that big flat deck, we could install a
    > number of scrap airliner wings vertically on pivoting masts. and make it a
    > sailing ship... Extropian Windjammer Cruises, anyone?
    >

    I guess it could possibly work as a commercial venture/lifestyle opportunity,
    if a bunch of the people were craftsman, machinists, etc. A carrier actually
    has lots of cargo space (for the planes, and their parts and fuel, mostly).
    THe men live in a fraction of the total space. If you had 500 men with 20K
    and some mechanical skills, electrical skills, piloting, etc., yeah, global
    shipping seems to be a growth industry (infortunately for the factory workers
    of America).

    Fix it up, find manufacturers who need cargo shipped. Of course, there is
    insurance to consider, but since all the operators would be owners, that
    would be simplified somewhat.

    I guess the real problem is the hull, and what rusting problems you might
    have. Now that kind of work is major league stuff.

    Could you get a shot at shipping from 3rd world manufacturers to
    America/Europe? Maybe....

    This touches tangentially on my kooky ideas about why I think the whole
    globalization movement is a shaft job on American workers. There is a LOT of
    opportunity for Americans who have perhaps modest savings with respect to
    starting businesses in the 3rd world. But when "free trade" agreements are
    created, it is always only the big businesses that get the shot at the 3rd
    world.



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