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Re: starship-design: RE: Bugs again



Hi Group,

-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Marlin <rmarlin@network-one.com>
To: L. Parker <lparker@cacaphony.net>
Cc: Starship Design <starship-design@lists.uoregon.edu>
Date: Monday, 26 October 1998 4:37
Subject: Re: starship-design: RE: Bugs again


>>Why is that silly? For roughly 3500 million years, light leaving the solar
>system has been "tagged" with the spectral signature of water vapor and
free
>oxygen, as well as methane and ozone.

Free-oxygen from about ~ 2 billion years ago, and high levels from about 0.6
billion.

 Any space faring civilization capable of
>interferometry would have known by now that we are prime real estate. A
radio
>transmission would only prove that the animals here can use tools, and
perhaps
>participate in a mutually beneficial exchange of biological and cultural
>information.
>
Which, if they're K3, they probably have better things to do with their time
than listen to us say "hey don't you think digital watches and pocket
computers are cool?" Or worse "Here's the first thousand prime numbers.
Aren't we smart?"

>As for conquering a distant K1 civilization, why resort to killing one or
two
>when you can kill off everything? An overly hostile and paranoid group of
aliens
>(there are probably a few), might decide to launch nanotech spores or von
>Neumann devices that seek and destroy planets like Earth. By now, we would
have
>been overrun.
>
Why not crash two hundred km across comets into planets - it'd turn the
crust and upper mantle into super-hot molten-rock. Instant sterilisation.

>Speaking of vN, there are probably a few drifting around in some quiet part
of
>the Sol system right now.
>
>
Duncan Lunan wrote on this recently in "Analog". He thinks that his L-5
probe might still be floating around solar-space stealthing it as a bit of
asteroid. Some interesting observations of a certain small asteroid fly-by
support his case.

Is anyone in charge of this mailing list? Can someone set an agenda?
We keep arguing about what we can't know - will the bugs kill us? are there
ETs doing it out there too? is FTL possible? blah blah blah...

Adam
>