{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/605", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 605, "subject": "disposable robots and the talus", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1999-05-04T23:03:34+00:00", "last": "1999-05-05T15:20:20+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Greg Neyman", "address": "greg.neyman at gte.net" }, "date": "1999-05-04T23:03:34+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) disposable robots and the talus", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "hey Michael, about your last post:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "the very concept of a seedship strikes me as so flawed . . . even the\nnotion of a robotic terraforming flotilla (which is a near cousin) is based\nupon the premise that robots are disposable slaves! \"Thanks for the\nplanet, Tinman--now go rust someplace else, you are staining the\nlawn.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think I take it for granted, but I'm glad that when I wake up at two in\nthe morning to do that paper that I've been putting off, my computer doesn't\nreturn the error message \"what the @#$% are you doing up at 2 in the\nmorning, and more importantly, why are you bothering me!!!\" the thing is,\nmy computer was created to be my unquestioning servant ... if robots are\ncreated, whose sole purpose is to make a planet habitable for human\ndetachment, then they won't care that they're thrown out like rubbish as\nsoon a the terrans arrive ...\n\nALSO, the late Dr. Asimov has kindly provided me with information on the\norigin of Talus ... from an essay he wrote of the history of robots ...\nGreek mythological inventor extrodinaire Daedalus gave the people of Crete\na fab gift, a giant brass man who could move, and whose sole purpose was to\nprotect the rich isle from invaders ... the name of the brass man was Talus\n...\n\n /\\/\\ Greg Neyman Greg.Neyman at gte.net\n___/____\\___ http://home1.gte.net/web100to/\n |HE HA|\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Patterson", "address": "rpatterson at promus.com" }, "date": "1999-05-05T09:56:18+00:00", "subject": "RE: (whorl) disposable robots and the talus", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Greg, about Michael's post:\nhey Michael, about your last post:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "the very concept of a seedship strikes me as so flawed . . . even the\nnotion of a robotic terraforming flotilla (which is a near cousin) is based\nupon the premise that robots are disposable slaves! \"Thanks for the\nplanet, Tinman--now go rust someplace else, you are staining the\nlawn.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Another point is that if humans are ever going to inhabit other planets,\nwith or without current biospheres, those planets will almost certainly\nrequire some level of terraforming. While I find the probability-based\narguments for the existence of biospheres on other planets to be fairly\nplausible, I see no reason to expect that their life-chemistry will be in\nany way compatible with ours. I just re-read Vernor Vinge's\n_A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep_, and while it is a great book, he seems rather naive\nin assuming that everyone can eat everyone else and not die.\n\nOf course, if we discover some nice e.t. delicacies on Europa, all bets are\noff.\n\nR." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Robert Patterson\n\nhttp://home.midsouth.rr.com/rpatterson\n " } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "address": "areynold at estsa2.estec.esa.nl" }, "date": "1999-05-05T15:20:20+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) disposable robots and the talus", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Robert:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "require some level of terraforming. While I find the probability-based\narguments for the existence of biospheres on other planets to be fairly\nplausible, I see no reason to expect that their life-chemistry will be in\nany way compatible with ours. I just re-read Vernor Vinge's\n_A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep_, and while it is a great book, he seems rather naive\nin assuming that everyone can eat everyone else and not die.\n\n\nR." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "there's a nice Joe Haldeman short story which exploits the idea of\nincompatible biochemistries - I think it's in his last collection,\nwhatever it was called.\n\nIt's interesting that at the moment, SF seems to be questioning some of \nthe core assumptions which have held good for decades - like, if we\nhad the ability to settle other worlds (in this solar system or elsewhere)\nwe automatically would do so. Remember in Sterling's Schismatrix, how\nthe entire solar system has been \"taken over\" by humans, but hardly\nanyone actually bothers with settling planets or moons. Similarly in\nEgan's recent Diaspora, the posthuman explorers (actually just software\nrunning on tiny spacecraft!) are deeply reluctant to introduce any sort\nof contaminant into the planet they are exploring. Rather than sending\nsubmarine probes into the planet's ocean, they toy with the idea of\nwaiting a few hundred years until a tsunami dumps some sea-life onto\ndry-land, where they can study it from orbit.\n\nIncidentally - for anyone interested in the science (and art) of\nextrasolar planets - I'd suggest having a look at this *very* nice\nwebsite I found yesterday (needs Java though):\n\nhttp://www.jtwinc.com/Extrasolar/\n\ncheers...\n\nAl\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }