CompuServe Messages

John – I'm thinking. I'd rather wait to respond when I can respond in detail – but let me drop a couple of incendiary comments in the meantime. RE: changes in world geopolitical structure in this century – well, sure, this has been an amazing century to experience, the beginning of flight and spaceflight not the least of the landmarks, along with the rise and fall of diverse political systems – but good grief! Don't you imagine an educated person of the upper class, living in the 18th or 19th centuries thought EXACTLY the same thing, or in Ancient Greece in the time of the philosophers, or Egypt in it's glory? It is, however, a very myopic perspective, to imagine one's own century as the most significant in the history of mankind – let alone the planet! We are talking about "significant changes" on the biological/evolutionary time scale – on which "we" are barely a tick-mark. I do think that the first forays off-planet are significant – (depending on the eventual outcome – if we don't "make it" as a species, it's really not a significant development at all). There is something wonky with your temporal perspective. I also think you are showing a rather shocking lack of imagination to fixate on "the discoveries of fire and nuclear fuel" as common challenges that would have to be mastered by any space-travelling species, whatever their physical form – that is so provincial. Start with a radically different physical form, microscopic, for instance, then tell me why you think fire is necessary to forge any tools this form would be interested in … or why tools? It's within my imagination and that of many people that a vehicle could be *grown*, tools could be molecular/genetic, and fuel photosynthetically-produced. There is a big difference in the AMOUNT of energy, from whatever source, needed to boost a Saturn V to escape velocity, and that needed to send an ant (in an appropriately-scaled vehicle) to the moon – and that's just talking about this planet. What about a planetoid or asteroid with almost no gravity…sorry, don't think you need a nuclear explosion to get off of there … a little gentle solar power ought to do it. Gayle G de N