From: Billy Brown (bbrown@transcient.com)
Date: Sat Nov 13 1999 - 16:56:20 MST
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> I'd like to endorse Greg Burch's question as being extremely
> important, and add this followup:
>
> Is there any form of predesign or preplanning that could be done *now*
> which could realistically shorten the amount of time, or decrease the
> number of people, needed to convert assembler technology to at least one
> self-sustaining settlement in Earth orbit?
You bet. A large fraction of the project (maybe 75% of the lead time and
10% of the money) could be done before the assembler breakthrough. If we
had a firm date for the invention of the necessary nanotech we could
schedule the whole project around that to optimize our chance of success.
Since we don't have such a date we should a) start work early and b) make an
effort to develop better nanotech projections.
I think that preliminary work like locating a viable launch site, dealing
with the local government and working out preliminary hardware designs
should all begin a good 5-8 years before anyone expects to see a
general-purpose assembler. Working out a good colonization plan is
something we could start doing now - it doesn't take any much money at all
and it will be critical to a successful project.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@transcient.com
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