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Michel Siffre's been there, done that:

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org...

The earth is capable of sustaining everyone one of us.

This is not really true, though. Sure the land can grow enough food to support quite a bit more population, but the energy needed to harvest and distribute it? And how do we know it won't eventually turn into desert as we push it more and more? But by far the most important factor is that society itself cannot support more population, we already vastly out populate meaningful social roles. See: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org...

So what exactly happened in Universe 25? Past day 315, population growth slowed. More than six hundred mice now lived in Universe 25, constantly rubbing shoulders on their way up and down the stairwells to eat, drink, and sleep. Mice found themselves born into a world that was more crowded every day, and there were far more mice than meaningful social roles. With more and more peers to defend against, males found it difficult and stressful to defend their territory, so they abandoned the activity. Normal social discourse within the mouse community broke down, and with it the ability of mice to form social bonds. The failures and dropouts congregated in large groups in the middle of the enclosure, their listless withdrawal occasionally interrupted by spasms and waves of pointless violence. The victims of these random attacks became attackers. Left on their own in nests subject to invasion, nursing females attacked their own young. Procreation slumped, infant abandonment and mortality soared. Lone females retreated to isolated nesting boxes on penthouse levels. Other males, a group Calhoun termed “the beautiful ones,” never sought sex and never fought—they just ate, slept, and groomed, wrapped in narcissistic introspection. Elsewhere, cannibalism, pansexualism, and violence became endemic. Mouse society had collapsed.

Mouse utopia/dystopia, as designed by John B. Calhoun: CABINET // The Behavioral Sink

This was tried in 2004 http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/demaray.php
TFA goes into detail on the reasons and shows actual experiments with prototypes.

Thanks for the link. Apparently this tree shaping business reaches back to the 16th century at least.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/20/foer.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Mitchell#Other_interests

Citing Wikipedia as a source? Tsk tsk.

The article lists the following interview as the reference for the claim that Mitchell performed ESP experiments: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/5/esp.php

As I recall, there was nothing secret about those Apollo ESP experiments. They were widely reported at the time. I don't suppose NASA approved, but since he did the experiment on his personal time, there wasn't a lot they could do about it.

But yeah, Mitchell's weird beliefs are not exactly "shocking".

SymbioticA, a cross-disciplinary life sciences and art research lab at the University of Western Australia has been taking "baby steps" in this process. You can read about their "disembodied cuisine" project where they grew frog skeletal muscle over biopolymer and ate it.

It turns out the biggest problem with doing these kinds of experiments are regulations. Research labs may lose their licenses if they produce food for eating, actual food production has tremendous amount of regulation, and the transport of "biological samples" are highly regulated (although transport of a flank steak is much less regulated).

Also real "meat" is not just muscle cells, but a rich microstructure of muscle, connective tissue, and fat. So it will push the limits of tissue engineering to come up with something that actually tastes good.

If only you two were serious; squabbles between petty powers can be almost amusing. For example, Tonga vs. the Republic of Minerva. A group of businessmen founded an organization with the goal of creating a libertarian paradise called the "Republic of Minerva". They spent a fortune shipping sand onto a section of the remote, submerge Minerva Reef, raised it above sea level, erected a small stone platform and a flag, and announced their independence. They issued their own currency and started working on everything it is that a country does. Sadly for the libertarian idealists, Tonga rallied every troop they could muster from their 100,000 person nation, including a band of convicts, a brass band, and Tonga's 350-pound king. They invaded and conquered the miniscule sand pile, losing one man in the process of taking the uninhabited island (I kid not; a fight broke out among two of the convicts. The Republic of Minerva had a murder rate higher than its population).

The whole thing would have made a great YouTube video.

Will nothing stop Tonga's unbridled military might? We must stop the Greater Tongan Co-Prosperity Sphere before it is too late!

I can only think of one thing you can't do more efficiently with a CLI (draw pictures) but then again I've always preferred CLIs (because they are so much faster and less restrictive) so I'm probably not the right person to ask.

Anyway, the existence of even one thing that the GUI does "better" still proves the point; that GUIs aren't useless.

Incidentally, my prior post was supposed have a link to Eben Moglen's interview here where he says "What I saw in the Xerox PARC technology was the caveman interface, you point and you grunt. A massive winding down, regressing away from language, in order to address the technological nervousness of the user." but I mis-moused it somehow.

still not as cool as pykrete

Don't assume for a moment that we won't colonize and terraform Mars. It may take 100 years and start with little research outposts like those on Antarctica, but soon enough it'll all be plowed up and paved over and we'll bring all the plagues of earth, litter included.

So.. For instance, why haven't we terraformed or colonized Antarctica, then? Why isn't anyone even talking about terraforming and colonizing it? It's a far, FAR simpler task, and the possible benefits are the same.

The truth is, for the next few hundred years (or perhaps millennia) there is simply no good practical reason - which is the same reason we're not talking about terraforming and moving to Antarctica.

The difference is that space travel is romanticized. That's the difference. That's why people are having these ideas.

Back in the 1920's people romanticized technology. And people dreamed up big technological solutions to the similar non-existant problem of living-space. Like the Atlantropa idea to essentially drain the Mediterranean and create 'lebensraum' (this is before the Nazis hijacked the word for their own solution, which was to simply steal land from Russia).

Atlantropa didn't happen. It'll probably never happen. Neither will the colonization of Antarctica. And neither will colonization of space.

It will not without a very good practical benefit which would outweigh the technical hardships. And if it does happen, it'll surely be after Antarctica is colonized and the Med drained.

Romance and adventure isn't enough.

Software was meant to be free.

I think Eben Moglen puts it better in this interview.

Taking "intimate" photos and seeing what building you most resemble.

And, to beat the reply posts:

1. No, I have no idea why they put it on a postcard.
2. Yes, I did notice the entire webiste, including the card, is "©2003 Cabinet Magazine".

And, to beat the reply posts:

1. No, I have no idea why they put it on a postcard.
2. Yes, I did notice the entire webiste, including the card, is "©2003 Cabinet Magazine".