Simulation of a 'star crosser' (hollowed asteroid) like in Long Sun!

Daniel Petersen · 17 May 2012, 08:25 · from 2012-May.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 09:25:54 +0100
Subject: (urth) Simulation of a 'star crosser' (hollowed asteroid) like
 in Long Sun!
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His people knew what they were doing.

Yeah, that's the assumption back of the entire Solar Cycle, which is highly
effective in giving a powerful sense of decay, and, even more so to me, the
possibility that Wolfe's narrators are only following the exploits and
dramas of basically 'left behind' 'backwater' communities (however vast and
seemingly complex and important to themselves, with an Autarch and what
have you).  It actually has a strong plausibility to it.

It seems only too likely that a (inter)galactic space-faring
multi-terrestrial empire (or mega-galactic interaction of cultures of some
kind) of the magnitude suggested in the works would have 'pockets' of
leftover cultural decay in the 'boondocks' of that massive crisscrossing of
interstellar economy.  And these pockets would have their overlords that
would seem immensely powerful to the inhabitants, but are really lackeys
and peons in the larger scheme, petty tyrannical landlords in the grip of
an ultimately laughable megalomania - .e.g Typhon.  (This would fit in very
well with and hugely deepen Wolfe's whole focus on the 'outcasts' in the
Solar Cycle.)

Has anybody else felt like Urth and co. are just a forgotten 'tribal
village' tucked away in a vastly advanced cosmic mega-culture?

-DOJP

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 1:37 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>wrote:

> Slap one of these babies on it and you're good to go:
>
> http://www.projectrho.com/**portfolio/port22.html<http://www.projectrho.com/portfolio/port22.html>
>
> Incidentally, this "terrarium" concept does suggest something about Urth:
> that its spacefaring technology must already have been fairly advanced
> along these lines for Typhon to hollow out the Long Sun ship using just
> such a process as Robinson describes. His people knew what they were doing.
>
> One might guess that his existing ships were unable to move large
> populations because they were too small; perhaps then they performed FTL
> travel by pure acceleration, being limited in size and therefore mass.
>
> On 5/16/2012 3:37 PM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
>
>> well, actually, I'm not sure this kind is meant for interstellar travel,
>> but, anyway, it shows how a small 'world' could be made inside a hollowed
>> asteroid with an axis 'sun' source...
>>
>> -DOJP
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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