At 3:10 PM -0700 12/30/97, Anders Sandberg wrote:
>1) It would be nice to get together all that has been written and
>thought about stellar engineering "under one roof" so that we could
>see how the different proposals could be combined etc. Somebody
>feeling they like to do a review?
>
>2) What about laser stars? Apparently some stars have at least
>chromospheres that can be made to lase. I have a link from my megatech
A readable fictional treatment of this is in a recent Stephen Baxter novel,
"Ring," apparently the final chapter in his future history series.
Many pages are devoted to how a star, specifically, our sun, is induced to
burn faster. Much faster. It may not be fully accurate (duh), but it's an
entertaining way to get exposed to some of the issues.
For nonfictional treatments, there are of course a bunch of books on
stellar astrophysics. Not something I follow closely, at least not since my
last class in astrophysics, in 1973.
BTW, Baxter's series should be of interest to many on this list, as it
deals with issues about megascale engineering, expansion throughout the
universe, and the final stages of intelligence and the universe.
(Personally, I think more about what is happening now and will likely
happen in the next few decades, so concerns about the Omega Point 10^10^642
years from now is not my cup of tea.)
--Tim May
The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
Received on Wed Dec 31 20:46:23 1997
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