Re: Nefertiti's lovely elongated head

On Oct 8, 3:05 am, "rick_so...@xxxxxxxxxxx" <m...@xxxxxx> wrote:
See for yourself. Here is a lttle bit more... written in 1937 Star Maker.

"Stapledon imagines alien biologies, minds and civilizations radically
different from human ones. But unlike Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, all these are
supposed to be fundamentally similar in the long run, since all are governed
by
the same Darwinian and Marxist laws of development. These views, rooted in the
late 19th and early 20th century, may appear dated to some modern readers. The
eclectic mix of popular science, socialism and religious mysticism is
Stapledon's own.

Some of Stapledon's ideas for alien minds, such as collective intelligence,
seem far ahead of their time, anticipating recent ideas about swarm
intelligence and the general fascination with networks. He also mentions the
idea of virtual reality in the first alien world visited, in the form of an
apparatus that directly affects sense centers in the brain. The idea of entire
worlds as spacecraft is used several times."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Maker

And thanks to the amazing world of the Internet, you can even read the bool
on-line.http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601841.txt

And in the preface, wouldn't you know it, he atrtributes certain
things regarding artificial planets to this man!
J.D. Bernal
"He is also famous for having firstly proposed in 1929 the so-called
Bernal sphere, a type of space habitat intended as a long-term home
for permanent residents."

Wrote this book,
The World, the Flesh & the Devil
An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul
J. D. Bernal
1929


And there was movie made in the 50's with that name, and it was not at
all based on that book. Or so they say.

So if you like to read, you might find out more information there as
well.

here is the man...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Bernal

here is his book.
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Bernal/

(we are going to be back chipping flint soon and someone will still be
saying it was all their idea)

.