Robert Bradbury noted:
<<The paper author isn't just any "Criswell" -- he is *the* David Criswell of
"star lifting" fame. Hmmm, lunar power systems after you propose how to
lengthen the lifetime of a star. Kind of a let down if you ask me. >>
I liked David Criswell's notion of using solar power to fire arrays of proton
cannons at the sun's equator (many centuries from now) to suport a vastly,
expanded human occupation of the solar system. Human population was to be in
the trillions, or quadrillions, and the idea was to provide additional
habitats for this population, by converting the sun into a different sequence
star on the hertzprung-russell chart-allowing the stellar life to be
sustained to 100 billion years. The material stripped from the sun was to be
used to make space habitats.
This was all before computer tech really took off, and the notion of mind
uploading became a meaningful possibility, in the equation. Now we come to
the environmental impact statement of Criswell's proposal; how is hitting the
earth with microwave beams going to impact biota, as well as the climate?
Clearly, this proposal appears 'down the road' compared to other energy
systems such as fossil fuels, renewables, or nuclear. And much of fossil
fuels, renewables, and nuclear, apparently, are commercially 'down the
road',' also, as far as the 'market' is concerned.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:26 MDT