From: Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Date: Mon Apr 03 2000 - 16:05:08 MDT
Good morning boys and girls,
On Sun, 2 Apr 2000 20:56:38 EDT,
GBurch1@aol.com, wrote:
>Robert, just out of curiosity (i.e. wanting to put off disassembling Mercury
>and Venus until we've had a chance to really look them over) and a sense of
>aesthetic nostalgia, do you think you could do your thing with some other
>matter . . . at least for a while?
I'd like to suggest a compromise. Use only the interior of the planet.
Leave in place (properly supported, of course) an outer shell several tens
or hundreds of miles thick. I think you will all agree that the large,
protected, interior space thus created would, have diverse possible uses
and would significantly enhance the value of the property compared to the
original configuration. Plus, per the original motivation, you get the
stuff that was carved out of the interior to use how you will.
This same principle can be applied to all the solid planets. Even the
earth. Mercury, Earth's moon, and mars are particularly good candidates.
Planets with substantial atmospheres would require atmospheric containment
measures if you wanted to retain an outward appearance of originality.
The current spherically-symmetric solid-lump configuration of planetary
bodies is an accident of nature. A starting point like the block of marble
from which emerged Michaelangelo's Pieta (or the bits and pieces that came
together to form Disney World). What we need now are the artists and
artisans who, combining the talents of Leonardo Da Vinci and Frank Lloyd
Wright (and Walt), can take the work of Dyson, O'Neill, and Bradbury, and
craft tomorrow's crystalline star-garland Xanadus. Harbors of being,
sun-and-star dappled, Gaia's mind-children, dancing in the warmth of the
solar commons.
I dream, therefor I am.
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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