From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Jun 24 1999 - 08:22:20 MDT
Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org> writes:
> Note that there will be lots of stars with slightly less circular orbits
> where multicellular life never gets a chance to start because every two
> hundred megayears or so it gets toasted by the core supernovae. But this
> won't matter a lot to humans intent on finding lebensraum; just find a
> nice, sterile terrestrial planet orbiting a star that's heading up and
> out of the core and you've got, oh, the best part of a hundred million
> years to terraform it then live there in comfort. (Assuming that the
> rustic carbon-based way of life appeals to you.)
Of course, once you have settled in nicely for a few million years and
got that home feeling for your planet, then you are not happy about
having it incinerated. So the next obvious question is how to protect
your planet against supernovae. Presumably you can detect all stars in
the vicinity that might blow up, and even predict when they will go
off (within a few centuries or so). What forms of shielding might be
workable? Especially the close range neutrinos might be tricky to deal
with. Maybe the best solution is to be pro-active and try to defuse
the novas or move them (or the sun) out of the way.
> (One thing most interstellar SF ignores is that colonizing a planet that
> already supports a complex biosphere may be a rather, ahem, interesting
> experience, immunologically speaking.)
Yes, this is bound to be complicated and unpredictable. Although it is
not obvious how much an alien biochemistry will be allergenic or
toxic. And then of course there are the common effects of strange
chemicals on our digestive system - eating local stuff is likely ill
advised. My guess is that the biggest problem will be accidental
toxicity, as common substances in the biosphere might be similar to
important chemicals in our bodies. For example, in my current sf game
there is a disease where an otherwise fairly benign microorganism
produces an adrenaline-analogue when it colonizes the lungs.
Of course, the best solution here is to adapt to local
biochemistry. Why not get a body suited to the local environment and
fauna?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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