Up and spinning in under 500? by stinkingrose

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Up and spinning in under 500?

POSTED BY: STINKINGROSE
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 13:16
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 4:23 PM

So I was thinking...

(Never a good thing.)

After talking with LostThought on this topic the other day, I got to wondering..

Are there enough Browncoats with enough science-learnin' to knock their heads together and actually get terraforming up and running in a relatively short span of time?

It's amazing what you can figure out when you get enough people with enough different viewpoints and skill sets working together on something they are truly excited about.

Just thinking that there's likely to be a whole lotta computer and scienc-y types in the 'verse, it being a fandom and all.

My own knowledge is spotty and superficial at best.

Anybody else out there who knows more up for an intellectual exercise?

Things I can think of off the top of my head which need solving:

1) Near Earth locations: Moon, Mars, Asteroids between. Farther out we've got some biggish moons around the gas giants.

2) Creating/improving atmosphere and/or making domes for human habitation. (Really big gerbil cages, anyone?)

3) Power sources.

4) Getting a sustainable biosphere up and running in balance. (Biotic and abiotic factors.)

5) Getting there in the first place.

6) Getting to other solar systems with "sweet spots". (Long term planning, that!)

I'm just sayin'...

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 5:21 PM

WISHIMAY

Would we have enough browncoats, maybe...Enough browncoats to just give up their own slice of cozy? I don't think so.

Where do I sign up, though? Sure beats the hell outta Indiana.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 5:33 PM

STINKINGROSE

First comes the "how", then we worry about if we're feeling up to a move.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 6:18 PM

GREENKA61

Well, scientists think that Europa, one of Jupiter's large moons, might have liquid water underneath it's surface. I don't think it has an atmosphere though, and it is so far away from the sun that it is frozen.

Mars might be able to have one of those biodomes, but it is cold, too, and again, there is the problem of finding enough water, or the ingredients to manufacture water (not to mention breathable atmosphere).

The moon has frozen water.

One thing that interests me is that we keep finding microbes living in environments here on earth that we wouldn't think would support "life as we know it". They've found microbes trapped in microscopic bubbles of water trapped inside solid rock, or in volcanic vents that spew sulfuric acid.

The Russians are about to drill into Lake Vostok, which is a subglacial lake 4 kilometers below the surface of Antarctica that has been sealed off for 140 million years. Imagine the microbes living in that environment for all of that time....

Here's a link:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake
-vostok

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 8:24 PM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by stinkingrose:
First comes the "how", then we worry about if we're feeling up to a move.

Browncoats don't have to "know how." Many people have predicted that godlike powers will rise from silicon chips to fulfill all our biggest dreams without our help. I'll give you a place where I read about these people, today: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/4376 The article is called "There’s More to Singularity Studies Than Kurzweil".

If there is truth to the predictions, Browncoats only need to passively wait for the super intelligent machines to create themselves from Intel chips and then build the starships for us. There will be a Singularity in the year 2040! (2050 at the latest. I don't want to be overly optimistic.) Let the future take care of itself; humanity will be watching it happen on TV.

Much later edit: I think humans can not terraform Mars; we're too dumb and lazy. (Not you - you're smart and energetic!) We'll have to put our hope in fearless superhuman robots to do the job. In other words, SkyNet gives us terraformed Mars to live on. In exchange, SkyNet gets Earth.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:16 AM

STINKINGROSE

Quote:
Originally posted by two:
Browncoats don't have to "know how." Many people have predicted that godlike powers will rise from silicon chips to fulfill all our biggest dreams without our help.
****
If there is truth to the predictions, Browncoats only need to passively wait for the super intelligent machines to create themselves from Intel chips and then build the starships for us. There will be a Singularity in the year 2040! (2050 at the latest. I don't want to be overly optimistic.) Let the future take care of itself; humanity will be watching it happen on TV.

You go ahead and wait for that...better hope the Singularity's a benevolent despot while you're at it.
I'm going to take a more active role in shaping my future. (Note: I am not claiming I'm spearheading terraforming, or even referring to it in this instance.)

This thread did not posit "will we" or "should we", it asked "could we". Possibly even "how can we".

We obviously cannot simply walk out onto Mars in our skivvies and expect to live in existing conditions.
That's the whole point of "Terraforming". Forming Earth. Making new places more earthlike and hospitable to Earth's lifeforms. (Don't ask me who decides what life forms merit admittance to the club, I haven't studied microbes enough to make that call.)

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 4:07 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by stinkingrose:
Are there enough Browncoats with enough science-learnin' to knock their heads together and actually get terraforming up and running in a relatively short span of time?

I was joking about the Singularity, but there already is a terraform pilot project down on Earth. The Oil, Natural Gas, & Coal industries (employing Browncoats) are terraforming Antarctica. It is an expensive & slow work at the very limits of what can be accomplished with known physics. Not yet known physics will be needed to terraform other planets in a single human lifetime.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:32 AM

STINKINGROSE

Interesting.
Citations please?

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:35 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by stinkingrose:
Interesting.
Citations please?

Citations to what? That there is a fossil fuel industry? Proof that Browncoats work there?

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:44 AM

STINKINGROSE

" but there already is a terraform pilot project down on Earth. The Oil, Natural Gas, & Coal industries (employing Browncoats) are terraforming Antarctica."

Citations to the above quote. I'd like to look it up and learn.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:58 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by stinkingrose:
" but there already is a terraform pilot project down on Earth. The Oil, Natural Gas, & Coal industries (employing Browncoats) are terraforming Antarctica."

Citations to the above quote. I'd like to look it up and learn.

You disbelieve the greenhouse gas effect? You want proof for Antarctica?

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 6:46 AM

STINKINGROSE

AAAAAahhhhh...
No specific formalized controlled experimentation, then...

I thought you were talking about an actual intentional effort. Missed the "Caution: rhetoric ahead" sign, sorry.

No I absolutely do not disbelieve the concept of climate change, and I am convinced so far that it is indeed anthropocentric in origin. Both poles are measurably losing ice, and we're going to see some really weird stuff over the next 100 years or so even if we managed to get the ultimate causes under control next year. Global Warming = global weirdness.

But that's not what I meant by "terraforming" and I suspect you probably understood that in the first place.

So, to get the thread back on track:

What kind of science and sociopolitical background do the Browncoats here have, and is is sufficient to actually get us any closer to terraforming?

I've got some elementary univerity level exposure to a few areas of science, but would probably be suited to care and feeding of the theorists or slogging through the literature to find relevant articles if push came to shove.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 7:05 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Terraformers Society http://terraformers.ca/ “Our organisation's goal is to support research in this area, and to build up the resource base on this planet that will be needed to terraform our neighbouring worlds.”

Many links for stinkin' Rose to follow at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 7:20 AM

STINKINGROSE

Thankee kindly for the linkage.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:16 PM

STINKINGROSE

Very cool, thanks!

The more we learn the more possibilities open up.

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