WATERMAN@USC-ECL.ARPA (02/02/84)
re: inter-stellar(inter-galctic??)travel: has there been a recap lately of current thinking about possible propulsion+life-support systems for inter-stellar flight? Is the 1950's idea about using the world's supply of h-bombs out of the running now? then there was the interstellar gas gatherer idea and the laser idea and ..... ... . If a-i research/cognitive studies research gets as far as being able to map consciousness into a digital-silicon-brain, then one could in fact travel at the speed of light! Slow scout ships would go out and set up 'mind-trans- ceivers' at various places of interest. Then to go there, Mr. John Q. Siliconhead would just have his entire consciousness broadcast to the transciever at that place. He would get there in no time at all !!! Then he would just be booted in a duplicate material housing and be on his way strolling on the beach on planet x.! -e.s.(waterman@ecla) -------
rpw3@fortune.UUCP (02/07/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1633800:fortune:10200010:000:737
fortune!rpw3 Feb 7 03:44:00 1984
If I remember correctly, there was a pair of Fred Hoyle (or Hoyle and Hoyle)
novels a long time ago (one of them called "A for Andromeda") in which we
started hearing signals from "out there" which we decoded into instructions
for making a computer which first tried to take over, and when that didn't
work, got us to "build" a biomechanism that was in fact a pretty girl,
alive and active.
Piers Anthony's "Macroscope" had a similar theme, as did John Varley's
"Ophiuchi Hotline" and related stories.
Now, if we can only find another race to beam ourselves too...
Rob Warnock
UUCP: {sri-unix,amd70,hpda,harpo,ihnp4,allegra}!fortune!rpw3
DDD: (415)595-8444
USPS: Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphins Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney) (02/15/84)
The other Hoyle book is "Andromeda Breakthrough". Both are pretty good reading, having good tension. -- Lyle McElhaney (hao,brl-bmd,nbires,csu-cs,scgvaxd)!denelcor!lmc