What's So Great About Ushas?

Dave Tallman · 18 Jul 2008, 17:04 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:04:21 -0600
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
Message-ID: <1bf4dd40807181004s69a896b3x7b2631a3f8388cd1 at mail.gmail.com>

Paul B wrote:

I'm sorry, this is dead wrong.  The actual phrase was  "[the bells] toll
the deaths of continents".  Baldanders knew perfectly well what would
happen, and he explains that "waves of gravity" are the cause.

We had different interpretations of the same text, it seems. Baldanders also
said "... a white fountain has been drawn across the void for millennia. It
spins as it flies, and in its motion it emits waves of gravitation.... These
waves are too slight to render us giddy. Yet Ocean feels them and breeds new
tides and fresh currents. ... Bells feel them the same way. Like Ocean,
their mass is delicately poised. ... The force that made your bells sound
has warmed the cold heart of Urth once more. Now they toll the death of
continents."

I read that the gravitational forces were weak, and so mistakenly concluded
that the primary effects on Urth were caused by heating. I see now that Jeff
Wilson is correct and that tidal forces caused by gravitation will cause
dramatic changes in sea level and also distort the earth's crust, bringing
volcanos and earthquakes.

I still don't understand the bit about the fountain spinning and why this
would cause it to emit "waves of gravitation." Is the white fountain
supposed to be something like a quasar?

I've actually been advocating for putting them on an equal moral footing
with humans, not demonizing them outright.   That comes later!  Killing the
vast majority of a planet's population of your moral equals reflects badly
on you.  As I've insisted, a responsible moral framework (deontology)
doesn't much care what the outcome of your actions is.

Even deontologists don't apply that standard absolutely. I've read that Kant
argued it is always wrong to lie, even to a murderer asking for the location
of his victim, but most say that the consequences of telling the truth
require a lie in this case. The alternative to the New Sun was the Ragnarok
future, in which the whole solar system dies and a pitiful remnant of
humanity is evacuated. Is that the lesser of two evils?
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