This rock, this watery pearl, this pale blue dot.
- From: rick_sobie@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 11 May 2006 12:39:55 -0700
We have investigated more than 70 worlds in our solar system counting
moons.
And what we have found, is that they are uninhabited, and uninhabitable
for mankind.
Maybe someday we might terraform some planet, but that would take so
much more than we are capable of today. The gravity alone, on any other
world, woudl kill us in a couple years. Those planets larger than us,
are completely uninhabitable. Gas giants.
The four solar system gas giants share a number of features. All have
atmospheres that are mostly hydrogen and helium and that blend into the
liquid interior at pressures greater than the critical pressure, so
that there is no clear boundary between atmosphere and body. They have
very hot interiors, ranging from about 5000 K for Neptune to over
20,000 K for Jupiter. This great heat means that, beneath their
atmospheres, the planets are most likely entirely liquid. Thus, when
discussions refer to a "rocky core", one should not picture a ball of
solid granite, or even, at 20,000 K, liquid granite. Rather, what is
meant is a region in which the concentration of heavier elements such
as iron and silicon is greater than that in the rest of the planet.
At redcued gravity, say that on Mars or any moon, our bodies will not
work. They crumble and die, in a few short years.
And we have no means of escaping this solar system.
And we have looked, and we have looked, for more than 20 years panning
the skies listening for radio signals or any signs of civilization, and
we have found none.
We are alone, in the sense that even if there is life out there, it
might as well not exist, because we have no knowledge of it, or
communication with it.
This, right here, is all we have.
So the question is, is life worth saving or protecting?
Is it not a fatal disease, a plague that at least one planet has got, a
smelly, noisy, painful, detestable thing? The truth is few people truly
care if they live or die, unless they are in that moment of madness
called love. Often man kills himself, and he kills other men, and he
kills all other living things without remorse.
But do we have a responsibility, nonetheless to preserve our species,
in the hope, that someday in the future, life might be worth the
living?
That we, might set out, to create such a fortress, that would propel
life, our art, our artistry, our knowledge, our civilization, our
intellect, our species, thousands of years into the future.
All able bodied men, in this country, shall be conscripted for for this
task, that we might preserve the seat of our government, our
institutions, our culture, our civilization.
A fortress that will dwarf all previous human endeavors.
A fortress with its feet solidly planted in ancient rock that all those
who gaze upon it, will say, "What mountain is this??? That rises from
the earth as if forged by the gods themselves!
That our great country shall preserved.
So that thousands of years hence people will look back at us and say,
they, yes they, were the ones, who did what no others before them could
do. They were the ones, who took this country and shaped and moulded it
into something more than anyone could ever have imagined. A testament,
to the greatness of mankind and the sanctity of life itself.
And when people look at us, they will look at us in awe. These heroes,
these master craftsmen, these Canadians.
.
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