"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message , Midnighter
writes

"Wayne Throop" wrote in message
...
:: What does mars, or the moon, have that you can't get on earth easier?

: "
: Land. According to reputable authorities, it isn't being made around
: here any more. (Give or take sea reclamation projects. I think the
: Star Trek movie novelisation established they drained the
: Mediterranean.)
:
: However, it mostly can be bought more cheaply than a space rocket.
And
: there isn't much terrific farming land elsewhere in the solar system.

Right; don't compare prices for land in manhattan, or even prime
farming land. Compare prices for land in the gobi desert, or
antarctica,
or death valley, or subsea habs, or whatever.

The notion that you can obtain land by terraforming mars much more
easily
than you can by terraforming the moon is fine... but it's much easier
to terraform earth.

One might say, "a second basket to put some of the species' eggs in".
But that's so long term, it's much like "we should stop burning fossil
fuels". Plus, what has the species done for me *lately*? Sure, yeah,
we should. But eh, shrug. (Mind you, the "eh, shrug" is not how *I*
feel about these issues; it's how they are going to be treated by most.)


the thing is, what happens when the earth and moon are used? for them to
drain the Med, that is pretty severe, even in the 24th century a la Picard
they were trying to raise a continent. Land was on a premium on earth in
star trek.

Was it? All the pictures we see show a green and pleasant land with a
remarkably high standard of living. I've never understood why a redshirt
would risk a very unpleasant end given Star Trek's social setting, either.

In the episode after the Enterprise E fought the Borg. Picard went home to
France. In that ep he was offered teh job as an administrator or something
else of a project where they were raising the seafloor somewhere to create a
new continent. Land was at a premium, people don't create continents on a
whim.

I wonder how relative lifestyles are? To us someone who can't afford the
latest toy or education is just surviving. So with replicators equalize
food and what not, so I'm guessing other things are seen as the "it" things.
Generic ring? worthless, clay pot made by some kid in third grade?
Priceless? Replicators would be a major singulatiry event. If anyone were
to ever invent one they would very quickly fidn themselves and their
designes at the bottom of the bay.