One of my favorite SG:A bits.

People make their lives uncomfortable for themselves, nothing we can do about that. The poorest, most wretched nations in the world are the way they are because they just refuse to trade freely. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Some nations want to trade freely but Western nations keep them out with tariffs and quotas. We should definitely do something about that.


Define "fractured". I'm of the firm belief that order generated without design will far outstrip the plans that men consciously contrive. I think it's great that there are billions of individuals on this planet with different beliefs and needs and wants and ideologies, so long as they don't try to force them upon others. Our differences are what make us so successful. We trade and commune and work because of our differences. Where we are permitted, a million of us working to accomplish seperate ends can build a society in a matter of days. Where we are not permitted, a million of us working together can build a dam or something, in like, 5 years. Ask Western China.

I think you already know the answer to that. Nothing unites people like an external threat. In the case of a hostile extraterrestrial event, you can bet that the whole planet would be out for alien blood.

What's SG:A? Stargate.. something? I'm not current on any sci-fi shows other than Firefly.



edit- Thanks krashkart! Now I just need to go find out what Stargate has to do with Atlantis. I hope it has submarines:)

Stargate Atlantis

So the Lcpl is a Browncoat! All your Libertarian ranting suddenly makes sense...

Oh yea
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6582/...9627e83d6f.jpg

For Firefly.

...I'm a Jayne Hat wearing Browncoat too! ;)



Check out Episode 214 "Grace Under Pressure" and 318 "Submersion".

Oh yeah!:yeah:
Steve got me started on it, now I can't stop watching it over and over. And over. :DL





I'll see if I can't find it on hulu after I get done moving. Man, I hate moving.:x

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3373/twirkoolaid.jpg
OH YEAH!!

Damn it now look what we did... :doh:

Great going there Lcpl... :O:

My image of Mars was seriously influenced by this book that I read as a small boy of 12 years, or 13:

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/7...eterdubina.jpg

Robots! Many robots! Laser beams! Jungles of meat-eating tentacle swinging plants! Ghost towns full of computers! One man all alone! Pure Magic for a boy of that age. I read it in one rush (like most books at that time), and could not sleep for two nights, for i was so excited and my imagination ran amok.

Ray Bradbury writing about a boy who has read this book - that would be something!

True, true, I cannot deny this, there are certainly quite a few nations out there who are pretty good at shooting themselves in the foot, Zimbabwe and the DPRK come immediately to mind. Likewise there are some who would do more if they had more to do it with, sorting the wheat from the chaff is the foreign aid departments job and I'm glad its not mine. Of course, there is the risk that nations will come to exist wholly on foreign aid and never walk on their own two feet, I think this is another problem which is prevalent in some countries, particularly in Africa.
However, one problem which keeps cropping up in my mind is the birth rates and death rates and the widening gap between the two. Don't get me wrong, it's lovely to have your friends and family around for longer (in most cases) however at the same time there is an extra burden on resources, particularly in an aging population as Europe is finding out now. So, that takes resources from other areas and puts it into caring for the elderly, and that's good...but then you've got to encourage people to have babies to your population growth from going negative (and your tax income with it) so you've got to put more resources into child care...because you need your parents to keep working to keep the economy going, so that's more resources in...and that's just things like financial and work hours. When you factor in food supplies and water supplies as well, then things start getting a bit tighter.
What do I think it will mean? Well...quite simply the richer nations will continue on as normal but with higher food prices and the poorer nations will have mass famines. So, not much change there.
Then of course, there's the possibility of Peak Oil...I don't know precisely where to stand on that, but it's going to run out at some point, and that won't be such a great time if we haven't developed alternatives to an extent that they can be phased in as crude oil is phased out.


Our differences make us so successful and also what make us so conflicted. Of course, this is inevitable on a planet where the fittest survive at the expense of the unfit, however it can also slow things down in bureaucracy and it can lead to corruption due to each man trying to profit himself over others.

I'm no communist, I used to be quite left, but I'm more central now because I've seen how communism falls apart when exposed to reality, but some parts of intense competition is damaging whilst the others are indeed beneficial.

True...although if they were smart enough they'd play us off against each other.


I'll be in my bunk.



I...I started so well in typing this but it's kind of faltered out. I blame the weather...too friggin hot for this islander, where's that fabled British rain gone? :damn: But I do see where you're coming from UnderseaLcpl, but you cannot deny that mankind can be very shortsighted...but thankfully, hopefully, now we can see a change with people thinking more about their actions and how they will effect their children, be it economically or be it environmentally.

Awesome, that was about the age I was when I read War of the Worlds. Still one of my favourite books. :yep:

I guess that if there was same motivation in NASA now as it was in 60s and 70s humanity could reach Mars and beyond.
As for now there is no will and money for space programs.

As a SF fun -i kind of hoped we would live in more exiting age for space exploration.

Who cares about some rocks in space.
No life no votes.

"Boje Weltraum-Abenteuer", a series of eight books from a publisher of youth books - true classics of youth literature in Germany, and German science fiction. Mark Brandis also is such a classic series, aiming at teenagers and younger adults. It is popular until today, although the series is from the late 70s and 80s.

German readers, heads up! the Mark Brandis books, all 30+, are in the process of getting republished since some time, the first half of the series is already available again! I have bought and read "Bordbuch Delta VII" some months ago - that was great fun and brought back many memories! they also have turned the books into radioplays of accustically absolutely outstanding quality - the scenery sounds like you used to know it from movies.

http://62.75.219.232/ernstwurdack-s3...88cfbae9b6f6f9

This is the series that turned me on to Mars as a kid:

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n4280.jpg

I didn't really get into Burroughs until I was a teenager, and not the John Carter series until my twenties. When I read the part where Barsoomian women lay eggs I thought "How cool - the never lose their figures!"

But then I was married to a woman who had two kids the human way and didn't change a bit.

First we must find the atmosphereum.


"Amish Terrarium. Must find Amish terrarium" :D

(one of my favourite movies) :yeah:

I have to disagree with you on this Oberon. If its true that entropy is going to slowly destroy the universe then I think we should go out and consume as much resources as possible and "empire build". Spread, propagate and consume because somewhere in a vast Human Empire someone might discover a way out and we might have the resources to accomplish it.

Every planet we colonize or space habitat we build is like a mini-"Foundation" dedicated to this effort.

:salute: