From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science
Subject: Re: Niven's blunders (was:Superconductors + the 2nd law)
Date: 30 Aug 92 14:44:02 GMT
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge

In article <fmonro.715101143@neumann.une.edu.au>, fmonro@neumann.une.edu.au (F J Monro) writes:
|> 
|> Why not buy the GP Hull, In "At the Core" Niven says it is for sale
|> (Amazingly cheap at 1 trillion stars..). Start making hull material
|> domes over your citys (think climate control, fusion reactor disaster
|> control, air raid defence), It also keeps radiation out. You'll need 
|> it over farms as well. with teleport booths you need never go outside.
|> GP domes need little maintenence. 
 
 We Made It already has a headstart on this... their cities are already
underground. A few hundred meters of rock makes nice shielding, and if
that's not enough, you can line the walls with lead, or GP hull material.
Vacuum colonies like the asteroids and the Ends of Jinx can also use this
without much of a shakeup in the infrastructure.

Also note that the GP hull was custom designed to be transparent to the
puppeteers' customer races. Once you know the basic method of construction,
it shouldn't be hard to design a version that's opaque only to harmful
radiation. Or opaque to everything, if you want that. Or a one-way mirror.
The possibilities are endless...

|> As a further backup, scatter statis caches around Known Space which 
|> have very durable timing devices to turn them off after the radiation 
|> has past. Let these contain a colony kit & terestrial "Gene Bank" 
|> of the earth's bisphere (these can be living animals & plants). 
|> To make shure that they do emerge, put some of the "arks" in prominent 
|> orbits around interesting celestial objects. The first aliens to evolve 
|> after the readiation will open them (only 2 or 3 billion years to wait.)
 
 Heh, well, it almost worked for the Slavers and tnuctipun. Two or three 
billion years of evolution would make the galaxy a strange place for our
awakening humans. (-: While you're using the stasis field option, why not
put entire cities under stasis fields? The kzinti did it on Warhead (Canyon),
so we know the tech already exists. This may be cheaper than the GP hull 
method. 

|> Also, make a contract with the outsiders to open some of them, should the 
|> timers fail (offer to statis some starseeds?).
 
 But who knows whether the Outsiders will even be around? That information
might cost too much. I wouldn't make species-saving deals with the Outsiders - 
not that I don't consider them trustworthy, it's just that they're so alien 
that it's hard to tell what their motivations and goals are, and we have no
idea how this emergency will affect them. Best to keep the unknown factors
down to a minimum.
 
|> Also make some protectors, send them off in hyperspace ships with orders 
|> to come back afterwards and open the things. 

 Breeders do _not_ give orders to protectors. Protectors know what's good for 
you, probably better than you do. (-: They're the one "higher power" which 
I'd trust to act in humanity's best interests. However, even they might 
produce unforeseen results... as Niven said, intelligence is a tool to be 
used towards a goal, and goals are not always chosen intelligently.

|> What do you think (If you've read this far, you must be a Known Space Fanatic)?
 
 Yep, that's me, definitely a fanatic. (-:
 
 There's one factor you're forgetting, probably the one that will ultimately
save Known Space: humanity's genetic luck. They'll discover something in the
next twenty thousand years to avert the crisis, whether it be a cheap and 
reliable radiation shield, a better hyperdrive, an easy way to move entire 
solar systems, or something we can't even guess at now. A trillion Teelas 
are too lucky to fall victim to some silly little accident like an exploding
galaxy. (-:
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