This suggests a funny short story to me (I don't think I could make it sustain an entire novel) in which different countries fight over terraforming Earth. Allies and enemies would be determined primarily by latitude. Canada and Russia would be pumping greenhouse gases like crazy into the atmosphere, while countries farther south would be growing giant forests to lock up the carbon.
Frankly, I think we're going to have all the problems you speak of a hell of a lot longer than it would take us to colonize/terraform Mars. I also find it unlikely we're going to do a tremendously better job solving those problems by shutting down the space program (which has bettered our lives in many profound ways, e.g., communications satellites, weather satellites, etc.).
If we do send robots, we should be damn sure they don't have a "battle mode," because if watching all those Mars movies taught me anything, it is that the battle mode will always turn around to bite you in the ass.
The position of Mars in the solar system is not exactly why it ended up the way it did. We now know, for instance, that liquid water oceans once existed on its surface and that it was warmer in the past. What's really done in Mars is its small size and the fact it has cooled off. In the past, volcanic outgasing gave Mars a much thicker atmosphere and an enhanced greenhouse effect. When the interior cooled and the volcanoes stopped, that was it for new atmosphere. The low surface gravity also made it harder for Mars to retain much of that atmosphere. The sun has actually gotten substantially more luminous since it was formed (about 40% if I recall correctly) and will continue to brighten over its lifetime. A few billion years from now and Mars will be the prime real estate.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series addresses both the technological and social problems in plausible and interesting ways.
But I guess what you're really asking about is the South Park underpants gnomes problem:
Phase 1: Collect Underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
Only now, the gnomes have stepped it up to terraforming!
So, if the way to modify humans requires genetic changes as you suggest, is it any more ethical to modify the people? It's likely we'd have to change them before they're born and they'd have no choice in the matter. We'd be creating an entire new race, something that would perhaps be an even bigger and more important issue than that of terraforming an entire planet.
I'm an astrophysicist and an SF writer, and the writers they had on their panel all know an enormous amount of stuff about Mars -- much more, in the global sense, than any typical super-specialized scientist.
And maybe it's because I haven't studied "ethics" as a discipline and have an agnostic's distrust of other people trying to tell me what is right and what is wrong, but I'd just as soon keep "ethicists" out of the whole deal. Most policy decisions aren't made on the basis of ethics anyway, but on the basis of economics and public opinion. Still, if we want to bring in ethics, why not novel writers? I'd probably prefer to listen to Dickens, or Fitzgerald, or Morrison, about what is right and wrong for human beings than "ethicists."
Actually, it does matter what "inert" gases are used since even many noble gases can have narcotic or anesthetic effects when taken into the blood. Perhaps this is more of a problem at higher pressures, but I doubt it can be completely ignored at lower pressures. Simplest and best would be to try to recreate an Earth atmosphere, since nitrogren is a very common element that can be obtained from comets and doesn't have ill effects at less than a full atmosphere.
I'm a hard sf writer and the hardest part of the new book I'm working was designing a breathable atmosphere for a dark matter planet. I had to cheat and invoke alien technology in the end, but it works.
Not back just yet...still procrastinating! Got a few more weeks of hell making the..ahem...revised deadline on the new novel. But thanks for the welcome.
As for the photos, well, live and learn. We were mostly interested in getting some blow-ups, so not having the negatives was a worse problem than it might have otherwise been.
There are different rules for making copies for a class -- copyright's fair use clause gives a lot of leeway to making copies for educational purposes. I don't know, without more information, if what you're talking about exceeds fair use or not. If entire books are being photocopied, that likely is illegal without permission. If it's individual chapters or essays, that could well be OK.
We went with a professional for our wedding, got an initial set of photos, and six months down the line want some additional copies. The "professional" had lost the originals. No more copies. He lost some money, we lost more.
OK, maybe this is just an excuse to talk about this some more, but really. We get some snide and "pithy" comments on the article, mostly of worse quality than what many/. contributors had to say, and it's news? I'm not dissing Sterling here, but is his every "pithy" utterance worth a long discussion? I remember that before 9/11 he used to rant against the unnecessary airport security.
No...if it were a backwards American (as opposed to an upright American like myself), it would say that "Your success in life and love can be increased with numbers by UP TO a factor of five, AND MORE!"
This is yet another example of a non-story story. 99.9% of all astronomers would have told you before this story that these active galaxies had big black holes. We would have also pointed to other results (from Hubble) from the last 5 years or so that have clearly indicated that essentially ALL massive galaxies -- active or not -- harbor black holes in their cores about 1/1000 as massive as the bulge component of the host galaxy. I've been saying this to my classes and in seminars for years. I'm not saying this isn't a nice project, seeing the waste heat from the active core, but it's a confirmation not a "discovery of new black holes." Sheesh.
This kind of thing pisses me off, too. I don't mind THAT much (although I mind) credit card company late fees. I pay some too -- up to $39, because I'm a busy guy. But at least I've agreed to it and can punish that card by putting it in the "do not use" pile for a year, or usually calling to complain and threatening to cancel will eliminate the charge. But when you have different companies (like hospitals, or other companies that prefer to bill you down the line) assigning arbitray late fees and the like, it's just irritating.
I have a credit union with direct deposit, very few fees, if any at all most months. I know I'm smart/lucky there. The direct deposit gave me 0.25% off on a car loan, too, at a decent rate already.
The phone thing though...do you also get Qwest commercials where you are that intimate that their customers love getting their bills and phone calls?! Unbelievable...
I doubt it.
If it isn't a tax, why not roll it into the monthly rate? It's very frustrating to see incomprehensible, mandatory fees on a bill you must pay to maintain service.
Roll it into the monthly fee and let us eat our Soylent Green like happy cattle. We've got bigger fish to worry about.
Phone companies have been pulling this crap for years, banks too. Doesn't mean they should or that people like it.
Tempted to try this on my next government grant budget, but will probably have an attack of integrity.
Deceptive but not illegal is still sucky. And that's the technical term.
The current administation uses wishful thinking and political belief rather than science to make decisions, and misrepresents their own scientific reports, and that is the problem.
Luckily for the world, Germany did the same thing by dismissing the "Jewish Science" of Einstein and others and didn't seriously pursue the atom bomb.
Yeah, I was at Milehicon in Denver, his last con. I thought I'd be on the Science Education panel with him, but they didn't put me on that one. He was lucid, and entertaining, and clever. And he died a few days later. Why haven't they fixed that yet?
What you say is mostly true, but man, this Retro Hugo novel batch is super impressive. Can you remember a modern set of novels as great? Sure, there have been a few great ones in recent years, but this is a set where EVERY nominee is great.
Star Trek NEVER "ran king amongst the Hugo awards, at least in the books." Name a single Star Trek novel that was ever even nominated for the Hugo award. You can't, can you?
Dramatic presentation is a different matter, but get things at least remotely close to reality, OK?
Slashdot Mirror
This suggests a funny short story to me (I don't think I could make it sustain an entire novel) in which different countries fight over terraforming Earth. Allies and enemies would be determined primarily by latitude. Canada and Russia would be pumping greenhouse gases like crazy into the atmosphere, while countries farther south would be growing giant forests to lock up the carbon.
Frankly, I think we're going to have all the problems you speak of a hell of a lot longer than it would take us to colonize/terraform Mars. I also find it unlikely we're going to do a tremendously better job solving those problems by shutting down the space program (which has bettered our lives in many profound ways, e.g., communications satellites, weather satellites, etc.).
If we do send robots, we should be damn sure they don't have a "battle mode," because if watching all those Mars movies taught me anything, it is that the battle mode will always turn around to bite you in the ass.
But Dan Quayle said we could live there!!!
The position of Mars in the solar system is not exactly why it ended up the way it did. We now know, for instance, that liquid water oceans once existed on its surface and that it was warmer in the past. What's really done in Mars is its small size and the fact it has cooled off. In the past, volcanic outgasing gave Mars a much thicker atmosphere and an enhanced greenhouse effect. When the interior cooled and the volcanoes stopped, that was it for new atmosphere. The low surface gravity also made it harder for Mars to retain much of that atmosphere. The sun has actually gotten substantially more luminous since it was formed (about 40% if I recall correctly) and will continue to brighten over its lifetime. A few billion years from now and Mars will be the prime real estate.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series addresses both the technological and social problems in plausible and interesting ways. But I guess what you're really asking about is the South Park underpants gnomes problem: Phase 1: Collect Underpants Phase 2: ??? Phase 3: Profit! Only now, the gnomes have stepped it up to terraforming!
So, if the way to modify humans requires genetic changes as you suggest, is it any more ethical to modify the people? It's likely we'd have to change them before they're born and they'd have no choice in the matter. We'd be creating an entire new race, something that would perhaps be an even bigger and more important issue than that of terraforming an entire planet.
I'm an astrophysicist and an SF writer, and the writers they had on their panel all know an enormous amount of stuff about Mars -- much more, in the global sense, than any typical super-specialized scientist. And maybe it's because I haven't studied "ethics" as a discipline and have an agnostic's distrust of other people trying to tell me what is right and what is wrong, but I'd just as soon keep "ethicists" out of the whole deal. Most policy decisions aren't made on the basis of ethics anyway, but on the basis of economics and public opinion. Still, if we want to bring in ethics, why not novel writers? I'd probably prefer to listen to Dickens, or Fitzgerald, or Morrison, about what is right and wrong for human beings than "ethicists."
Actually, it does matter what "inert" gases are used since even many noble gases can have narcotic or anesthetic effects when taken into the blood. Perhaps this is more of a problem at higher pressures, but I doubt it can be completely ignored at lower pressures. Simplest and best would be to try to recreate an Earth atmosphere, since nitrogren is a very common element that can be obtained from comets and doesn't have ill effects at less than a full atmosphere.
I'm a hard sf writer and the hardest part of the new book I'm working was designing a breathable atmosphere for a dark matter planet. I had to cheat and invoke alien technology in the end, but it works.
Not back just yet...still procrastinating! Got a few more weeks of hell making the..ahem...revised deadline on the new novel. But thanks for the welcome.
As for the photos, well, live and learn. We were mostly interested in getting some blow-ups, so not having the negatives was a worse problem than it might have otherwise been.
There are different rules for making copies for a class -- copyright's fair use clause gives a lot of leeway to making copies for educational purposes. I don't know, without more information, if what you're talking about exceeds fair use or not. If entire books are being photocopied, that likely is illegal without permission. If it's individual chapters or essays, that could well be OK.
We went with a professional for our wedding, got an initial set of photos, and six months down the line want some additional copies. The "professional" had lost the originals. No more copies. He lost some money, we lost more.
OK, maybe this is just an excuse to talk about this some more, but really. We get some snide and "pithy" comments on the article, mostly of worse quality than what many /. contributors had to say, and it's news? I'm not dissing Sterling here, but is his every "pithy" utterance worth a long discussion? I remember that before 9/11 he used to rant against the unnecessary airport security.
No...if it were a backwards American (as opposed to an upright American like myself), it would say that "Your success in life and love can be increased with numbers by UP TO a factor of five, AND MORE!"
This is yet another example of a non-story story. 99.9% of all astronomers would have told you before this story that these active galaxies had big black holes. We would have also pointed to other results (from Hubble) from the last 5 years or so that have clearly indicated that essentially ALL massive galaxies -- active or not -- harbor black holes in their cores about 1/1000 as massive as the bulge component of the host galaxy. I've been saying this to my classes and in seminars for years. I'm not saying this isn't a nice project, seeing the waste heat from the active core, but it's a confirmation not a "discovery of new black holes." Sheesh.
This kind of thing pisses me off, too. I don't mind THAT much (although I mind) credit card company late fees. I pay some too -- up to $39, because I'm a busy guy. But at least I've agreed to it and can punish that card by putting it in the "do not use" pile for a year, or usually calling to complain and threatening to cancel will eliminate the charge. But when you have different companies (like hospitals, or other companies that prefer to bill you down the line) assigning arbitray late fees and the like, it's just irritating.
I have a credit union with direct deposit, very few fees, if any at all most months. I know I'm smart/lucky there. The direct deposit gave me 0.25% off on a car loan, too, at a decent rate already. The phone thing though...do you also get Qwest commercials where you are that intimate that their customers love getting their bills and phone calls?! Unbelievable...
I doubt it. If it isn't a tax, why not roll it into the monthly rate? It's very frustrating to see incomprehensible, mandatory fees on a bill you must pay to maintain service. Roll it into the monthly fee and let us eat our Soylent Green like happy cattle. We've got bigger fish to worry about.
Phone companies have been pulling this crap for years, banks too. Doesn't mean they should or that people like it. Tempted to try this on my next government grant budget, but will probably have an attack of integrity. Deceptive but not illegal is still sucky. And that's the technical term.
The current administation uses wishful thinking and political belief rather than science to make decisions, and misrepresents their own scientific reports, and that is the problem.
Luckily for the world, Germany did the same thing by dismissing the "Jewish Science" of Einstein and others and didn't seriously pursue the atom bomb.
So register for Worldcon and nominate/vote yourself! C'mon, it's fun.
Yeah, I was at Milehicon in Denver, his last con. I thought I'd be on the Science Education panel with him, but they didn't put me on that one. He was lucid, and entertaining, and clever. And he died a few days later. Why haven't they fixed that yet?
What you say is mostly true, but man, this Retro Hugo novel batch is super impressive. Can you remember a modern set of novels as great? Sure, there have been a few great ones in recent years, but this is a set where EVERY nominee is great.
Why, because he's still alive? Read it. It's a good book.
Star Trek NEVER "ran king amongst the Hugo awards, at least in the books." Name a single Star Trek novel that was ever even nominated for the Hugo award. You can't, can you? Dramatic presentation is a different matter, but get things at least remotely close to reality, OK?