[extropy-chat] Paul Allen to be fourth Space Power

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Harvey Newstrom wrote:

> But seriously, I told my partner about the SpaceShipOne project.  He thought
> it sounded exciting.  He said he regretted not being younger and having a
> healthy ticker so he could actually become involved with something like
> this.

Tell him the ticker problem may not be permanent -- there was a recent
report -- perhaps in Science Daily that they have recently had success
growing sheep-human heart chimeras (that's going to make some people
nuts I know) but given the normal organ shortage and how good they
are getting at suppressing rejection its something to think seriously
about.  Alternatively stem cell amplifcation and repair seems to be
moving along.  Not to mention claims of retrodifferentiation.  If he
can make it through this decade he is going to have lots of options.

Now with respect to getting him excited about space -- get him a copy
of "Mining the Sky" by John Lewis.  There's gold in that there sky...

If he has kids/family "Rain of Iron and Ice" is also good to force
people into a future thinking mode.  Individuals may not have a
strong desire with respect to their personal longevity (I think
this has to do with personal life history) -- but you will rarely
find an individual that goes "ho-hum" when they start thinking
about their grandchildren or other people they care about getting
turned into toast by falling rocks.  Its a totally different kind
of hazard -- driving a car I have some control over, choosing to
fly or not to fly I have some control over -- volcanos we may have
some warning about but earthquakes and particularly rocks falling from
the sky, not to mention nearby gamma ray bursts we do *not* currently
have any control over.  [For a nearby gamma ray burst probably one
of the safest places to be is in a living space at the center
of a reasonably large asteroid.]

And then point out -- that you probably haven't lived until you
have observed close up and personal the collision of a couple
of neutron stars (one every couple if years someplace in the
galaxy according to current estimates).

Finally -- for those of you who haven't seen it -- the TV show
"Threat Matrix" may be worth watching for people inclined to
think about their personal hazard function.  I'm torn between
shows where the writers are providing shows that will prompt
us to think about threats and their developing ideas that may give
terrorists strategies that they would not otherwise have thought
of.  The show last night involved a bribe to obtain an Airbus 310
which was then loaded with radioactive waste that had been dumped
in Africa that was then flown to the U.S. with an altered transponder
signal so it confused air traffic control with the intent of crashing
the plane into a tanker carrying pressurized LPG in Baltimore harbor
which would result in a large explosion and the distribution of a
radioactive cloud over much of the surrounding 5 state region.
Not a pretty picture.

Robert