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Of course this won't happen, which to me boggles the mind, as the boon to the economy and the world would be tremendous.

Red Mars is ... an 'almost plausible sci-fi' future-history approach about Colonizing and Terraforming Mars.

It's only plausible if you still think that technology is advancing linearly, instead of exponentially, and only if you assume humans will still be stuck in our fragile biological form for a period longer than the centuries it takes to terraform a planet in the first place. So no, IMHO, I think we'll sooner end up ripping Mars apart (oh the humanity!) to make better use of its matter, than wasting space & energy by living on its limited surface area.

(Yeah, I've had a slight problem suspending my disbelief for most SF in recent years :)

I'd much rather see Iain Banks' Culture brought to the screen, though that would be just a tad bit more difficult.

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Though the GSVs are REALLY fucking big if I remember correctly

Yeah, the GSVs are big, fast, smart and can manufacture any reinforcements they need. Starfleet, the Imperial Fleet, it doesn't matter - the Culture would beat them all, hands down.

Wow, I posted about Iain Bank early on in this story, see above. But I thought I'd mention it again here. I would love to do more with the site, but I just don't have the time. Here it is, Culture Shock

Xeger - Nice comprehensive overview of Banks by the Way!

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology.

Banks isn't entirely new, but he remains largely and undeservedly undiscovered. You can read all about him on my Iain Banks website.

I would also say that if you have not already read Greg Egan, especially his book, Diaspora, do so. This is first-rank hard sf at its best!

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology

I don't get a shift feelign at all. We are already direly close to Hubbert Peak, when oil demand starts to outstrip production. In fact Hubbert, himself an oil man, said that Hubbert Peak, even considering undiscoverd reserves (which is fairly predictable with satellite reconaissance) will come sometime between 2002-2009.

You can read about here on my website for more info. Some in the oil industry are thinking that peak will be hit within the next two years. This might explain our rush to invade Iraq.

Either way, as oil reserve dwindle and demand goes up, it will create a highly destabilized politic - and if you think the repression we've all been feeling lately is bad, it will only get worse... UNLESS:

We wean ourselves (QUICKLY!) off of Oil. The Hydrogen economy is just waiting in the wings. All of the technology is essentially there. The cost factors will become not only competitive, but cheaper and cleaner than oil, once we start migrating our energy infrastructure over to Hydrogen.
Lets hope this happens before we end up in some kind of nigthmarish Oil Fedual/Fascist Global New World Order.

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology.

Ok, I've been annoyed for years at the disparity between corporations and customers in who knows what about who. I think its time someone came up with a P2p, open source, reputation system in which we can turn the lens of datamining back on them. Technologies like Cuejack combined with the efforts of groups like Transparency International, can help bring about Participitory Capitalism.

Power to the people!

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology.

Noticed a problem though: all your archive links point to a munged 'floatingplanet' link.

Also, one quote of yours struck me: "I hope to publish a book about it. Hey maybe I can get lucky like those Wachowski brothers and outdo their Matrix Movie!" I'd had similar thoughts about writing a script, but remembered what Verner Vinge said along the lines that it's impossible to write the "important story" about something so far beyond our understanding. You have to dance around the subject.

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