At 01:21 PM 2/6/01 -0500, you wrote:
> > Ever compare the intelligence of a house cat to a lion? Or a chihuahua to a
> > Great Dane?
>
>I've known parrots that were far smarter than dogs or cats (and
>lighter).
>
> >
> > The resulting creature would be mostly brain, not much use for colonization
> > or exploration unless backed by mucho hardware, which I believe would
> > outweigh the traveler by quite a bit.
>
>Thing is you don't need to ship all that equipment: you need a computer
>CAD/CAM prototyping system to construct parts out of refined materials
>in situ.
>
>Mike
Yes, but you still need the refinery, and some processing to build more
than one-offs. With nano, I guess we are home free, here. Alternatively, we
can send numerous supply drones ahead of the colonists, as many have
advocated - then the infrastructure is ready before the colonists leave home...
Is the intelligence of the parrot real, or because it can talk? I have
heard varying opinions on "birdbrains"...
Chuck Kuecker
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:36 MDT