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Immobile Planetary Inhabitants
Many of the problems with creating a space colony are associated with building inhabitable, mostly un-used travel areas. | |
As un-appealing as this sounds, the concept of off world
colonists moving around might not be the way to go.
Humans might be genetically modified to live the way
plants do, immobile and in one place.
Hold on... I know.
Much of what occupies the human these days is mental,
not physical.
I'm sitting a computer now perfectly
content.
We all sat around and watched a movie last night. Great
fun.
Pods with genetically modified humans would be much
smaller than massive cities. If you look at the standard
human dwelling, probably 99% of the space doesn't have
a
human in it 99% of the time.
If a suitable pod was built that had complete hookup
with
the outside world, control of robots that did the
construction, farming etc, the humans could enter into a
new realm of existence, the immobile but completely
sentient and connected single location human.
You could say it's the concept of the couch potato taken
to
a new level for practical reasons. But think about it, if
the
desire for mobility is preventing us from occupying a new
planet, is it serving a positive purpose?
Can a person be happy not moving like a plant or a tree
if
they have sufficient mental stimulation and complete
control of their environment through control of remote
control robots? It certainly seems un-appealing but
perhaps
being open to various approaches to colonization of
other
worlds could open new ways to get the job done.
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Annotation:
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Umm, seen The Matrix lately? Because this is The Matrix,
without the evil AI controlling everything... |
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Given that some individuals already opt for something very close to a persistent vegetative state (Hence the term "couch potato") this is hardly an innovation ... |
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//Umm, seen The Matrix lately?// |
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Umm, no. Are there people genetically modified to
live in pods on Mars while controlling robots that do
all the physical work necessary to sustain life? |
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By the way, if absolutely necessary some of these
pods could
be mobile, but I don't think they'd need to be. |
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In "Matrix XXII: The Finding Nemo crossover", yes. |
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// By the way, if absolutely necessary some of these pods could be
mobile, but I don't think they'd need to be. // |
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If we upgrade our brain to transmit neural impulses from 200 m/s to say
the speed of light, and upgrade to fire at gigahertz rates, rather than
current 10 Hz range, then distance will matter, because of long ping
times. You will want to live not further than a few km away from your
friends you like to prevent the subjective wait times for their responses
painfully long. |
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That's why we use subspace radio for our proximity transcievers. |
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No you don't. It's two empty tin cans and a length of string.
I've seen it. In fact, I think it was me who showed you how to
put the knots in the string so it could be pulled taut. |
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Regarding the idea, what is the objective in sending people to
live on other planets? |
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Somewhere else to go and turn it into polluted
mess after destroying this one. |
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"EARTH FIRST: We'll strip-mine the other planets when we're done here". |
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// what is the objective in sending people to live on other planets? // |
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Well, not actually "people" as such, but it would be possible to send the entire cast of "Strictly Come Dancing" to a frozen, desolate wilderness for the rest of their (hopefully brief) lives. |
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// what is the objective in sending people to
live on other planets? // |
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Life is programmed to expand and conquer the
lifeless mud of other worlds. We're this
planet's unique offering to the universe, the mind
of matter, the soul and spirit that rose
from the dust. The vanguard of life. |
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As to what the meaning of life is, you'll have to ask
drunk, lonely, depressed, bearded German
philosophers about that. Not something that
particularly interests me. |
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Interesting. Rather than genetically modifying the humans,
this could just be the first stage of colonization. Building a
large habitat using remote controlled robots would be much
easier for people on Mars who can control them in real time
than for people trying to control the robots with a multi-
minute delay. |
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//Life is programmed to expand and conquer the lifeless mud
of other worlds.// I agree, but I don't think the "Expand and
Conquer!" poster is going to look right with a bunch of rooted
plant-humans on it. At the very least, they need to be able to
duck behind a rock whilst firing a laser gun and yelling
"Scotty, beam us up!". |
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I admit the recruiting posters for this method of
colonization might not be super appealing, but looking into
different methods of expanding into different worlds might
require some re-evaluation and modification of our life
form. |
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At least putting in on the table for review. |
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// At the very least, they need to be able to duck behind a rock whilst firing a laser gun and yelling "Scotty, beam us up!". // |
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Yes, "To Boldly Grow " as a voice over on the opening credits only really works for a programme like "Gardener's World". |
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Unless, of course, you plan to cultivate Triffids ... |
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// putting in on the table // |
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Put it anywhere you like; after all, it's not going to go anywhere ... |
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//You could say it's the concept of the couch potato taken to
a new level// |
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"it's the concept of the couch potato taken to a new level" |
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//That's why we use subspace// |
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//No you don't. It's two empty tin cans and a length of
string// |
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Yes he does, in a purely 'technical' sense. |
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It's actually
laminated steel & copper wire (not string), it's like a stick
of
rock, anywhere
you cut it you find the word subspace in copper.. if you use
a strong enough magnifying glass. |
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He's patented it as 'subspace' wire. |
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But you got the tin cans right. |
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<Deletes [Skewed]'s name from Christmas card list/> |
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<Adds [Skewed]'s name to "possibles" list for Special Christmas Gift, if there is enough cat excrement to meet existing commitments/> |
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This is a common theme in science fiction. |
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I'm sure it probably is, do you have any references? I'd like
to see what the premise was, how it worked out, what the
problems were etc. |
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Remember, I've read like 6 non fiction books in my life. (But
read them over and over again) |
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Easy enough, when they all have titles like "See Spot Run" and "Where's My Cow", no more than 12 pages long, one sentence per page such as "Spot chases the Red Ball" with helpful illustrations ... |
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I used to basically live in a library, I'd read for hours after
school. |
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I just wasn't interested in wasting my time on fantasy
nonsense. |
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<Carefully fills out post office forwarding address form giving
[doc]'s address/> |
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<Posts cards to family advising them to use the usual post box
for gifts & cards this year/> |
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