RE: why 30? one good woman will suffice/SPIKE

Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 09:28:34 -0600

Spike Jones wrote:
> Yes, with nanotech, all this becomes easy. But we can do a
> Mars colony now. I say lets go!

Does this mean you disagree with my recent post on this topic?

> I did realize there was a weakness in my previous arguement: that
> the spina bifida victim could take a number of frozen embryos to
> self implant if things go well.

Aside from being a rather unpleasant, this debate doesn't really seem relevant to the question. The limiting factor for a Mars colony is not going to be the number of people required to get a viable gene pool and raise the next generation. The real question is how big does the colony have to be to be able to maintain itself long enough to grow into a new civilization.

No one person could possible know enough to even maintain the equipment of a Mars base. She certainly isn't going to get a new civilization going on her own.

Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com