Re: Barack Obama Pits Space Explorers Against School Children

On Dec 4, 11:09 am, simberg.interglo...@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg)
wrote:
On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 07:58:47 -0800 (PST), in a place far, far away, Ian
Parker <ianpark...@xxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:





Just because they're designed by scientists only means
trouble, not a paradise.

They won't be designed by scientists. They will be designed by
engineers and architects.

With the rigid military like
environments too small for democratic or market forces
to play out. And the emotional and psychological stress
of isolation, and I bet long tours of duty. I would think that
colonies would be rife with conflict and difficult as
possible to sustain.

I'm picturing a job somewhat like ..oh.. spending all day
underwater welding, for the military. So there's no
money, no fun and no place to go except back to work.
Great view, but otherwise a living hell.

Why do people seem to fantasize so much about
colonies?

Because they don't think about them as stupidly as you do.

An engineer who is any good works things out. 90% of the world's
population lives on 10% of the land surface. It takes far less mass to
support a desert with SSP than it does to build an O'Neill colony.
This is obvious to any engineer. You are clearly not an engineer.

That doesn't seem so clear to the many people who have hired me to do
engineering.

I just got a shudder at the thought of that. So many it would seem
that you change jobs a lot.


I reckon you would have called Brunel looney had you lived in the 19th
century.

Yes, you reckon lots of nutty things.

And you're proof that even rocket science has its level of mediocrity.

You seem to lack any kind of scientific understanding.

I only "seem" that way to loons.

You keep using that line as your affirmation and see how the number of
loons keeps growing.
.

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