REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA (Robert Elton Maas) (03/13/86)
(Following message failed because "ulysses!..." was too long, in fact so long I failed to notice it didn't have a hostname specified; resending) Date: 1986 March 10 02:04:47 PST (=GMT-8hr) From: Robert Elton Maas <REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA> To:ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!akguc!codas!peora!ucf-cs!usfvax2 !3b2bame!jc3b21!fgd3 CC:SPACE@Angband Subject:eggs in many baskets for survival FGD> Date: 4 Mar 86 03:08:24 GMT FGD> From: ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!akguc!codas!peora!ucf-cs !usfvax2!3b2bame!jc3b21!fgd3 (Fabbian G. Dufoe) FGD> Subject: Re: Why does everyone want to leave this planet? FGD> I am reminded of the story (probably apocryphal) of the man who, in FGD> the 1930s, recognized the imminence of a global war. A peaceful man, he FGD> wanted no part of it. After long and careful study he identified a place FGD> of no strategic importance to anyone. He packed his bags and moved to FGD> Guadalcanal. That shows the folly of thinking one single place, no matter how safe looking, will escape random disaster. We need to put our eggs in many baskets, not just one. If that man had been part of a survival club, and if that club had distributed its members in many different places to escape the upcoming war, a few would be unlucky but the rest would have survived nicely. FGD> Emigrating to a quiet asteroid won't keep you safe from the next war. FGD> Neither will the emigration to space of the "adventurous" allow those who FGD> remain behind to live in peace. Right, but if we emigrate to lots of asteroids and other places far apart, it's very difficult for the big war to get them all. Human life on Earth and on twenty asteroids may be obliterated, but human life on the remaining thirty asteroids will flourish (assuming they aren't dependent on Earth). <<"twenty" and "thirty" purely illustrative; no claim is made as to the actual numbers>> ------- End undelivered message -------