“Truth? You can't handle the truth!”

[Emperor]

O Lucky Stevie! and I are awfully sorry

You may be Emperor but Stevie certainly isn't. If peeps want to hide under the sink clutching their adzes when the Starchild comes a-knocking then that's their loss.

Yeah, I was lying

So you could probably work out a rough timeline that'd parallel that of MC1 -  you'd be looking at say the early to mid-2020s (possibly earlier) for some kind of permanent settlement off planet, probably driven by environmental problems on Earth and dwindling resources (the Helium 3 on the Moon becomes vital as do things like space-based solar arrays). You'd presumably build mass drivers on the Moon and in orbit to shunt people and cargo around, so you could use them to fire out probes and then miners into the asteroid belt, where they'd build them to send material back. This would then be in full-swing by the time MC2 and Texas City start to get built in the later 2030s/early 2040s. The money raised would help fund more ambitious missions to other stars. Then you have the Atomic war in 2070...

Blimey, so that was Bad Bob's game then eh?  Not content with nuking the opposition to merely rule a despoiled planet of diminishing resources he hoped to to gain a monoploy of the very heavens in the upshot?

Wellll perhaps not that cynically but you've got to ask yourself what the underlying causes of tensions were - even today we are seeing the West and India and China making landgrabs in Africa because their resource footprint is larger than their available land. As climate change kicks in and megacities start to sprawl there is going to be increasing friction thanks to the need for water and other resources. so it can't be long before people start looking to the stars for salvation. Some of the architecture put in place could be used offensively (like orbital mass drivers but just imagine what havoc you could spread with space mirrors) and so even establishing a permanent presence to access resources could turn nasty, before you have different countries pushing to get the best positions.

Are you proud of yourself now Mr Pournelle?

He helped save the world with the power of fiction, so he should be

[Peter Wolf]

A heavy dose of these are in order for this thread.






V

I wonder what that has got in it ?

Ecstacy and Ketamine ?

I will have a few of those off you if you can spare any but if its from BigPharma then i am not going to take any of those thanks as they are trying to kill you.

[Hoagy]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you people I noticed this thread dropping off the radar. I want Shark to know or venerable in understanding to know, I did not set out with the intentions to kill this thread. Just to argue justly;"What is the truth? And do we give a fuck who gives it us?" Truly. Seems I overstepped the mark or challenged a point of view. Again this was not my intention but more, I wanted to break down the double standard.

[The Legendary Shark]

I don't think anyone blames you for anything, Krombasher - I certainly don't. This thread rises and falls periodically as the conspiracies come and go.

Anyone who lets a thread like this upset them is probably too fragile to be here anyway. Chill, bro - it's all good and truth is subjective anyway.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I read the news today, oh boy...

No-one is in control. They're making this shit up as they go along

[Peter Wolf]

I read the news today, oh boy...

No-one is in control. They're making this shit up as they go along

I read the headlines on alternative media political websites every day and its getting more insane by the day and you dont get slow news days anymore and its been that way for the last couple of years.

As far as the shit they are making up as they go along some time ago i read an article written by a couple of fiction writers saying that they couldnt make this shit up as its insanity on a daily basis.I am well into politics and current events but lately i find i have to switch off from it more and more often as there is simply too much of it.Like this evening i think fuck this i am going to do some drawing and listen to music or something as there is only so much insanity i can take.

"They" are in control to an extent unfortunately and before anyone accuses me of paranoia dont even think about it as i wish i was paranoid and it was all a figment of my imagination but unfortunately that is not the case.


Planet Earth = Planet Absurd

[JOE SOAP]

You give "They' too much credit.

[Peter Wolf]

You give "They' too much credit.

Well we have the manufactured banking collapse and bailouts etc etc,Globalisation,overseas UN/US/NATO military intervention/invasions etc,The IMF taking over deliberately bankrupted and sabotaged nations,the Arab Spring,the spurious War On Terror,private central banks like the FEDRES and the list goes on and on and on.............

[JOE SOAP]

Yet you can still sit and listen to the radio and draw...

[Richmond Clements]

You give "They' too much credit.

Very true!

In the words of Steve Earle:

"Now there ain't no one out to get you, They've got to walk in their own shoes"

[The Legendary Shark]

Depends what you mean by "they" and who you assume them to be.

[Mikey]

Me an some friends a mine stayed up all night
Drinking that truth
Truth Serum.

We soon realised the mistake we made and went our seperate ways.
I went up on the roof, to see if I could find some truth
There beneath the stars.
Questions followed me.

"Do you miss me when I go?"
Aw, honey I love you. An that's all you need to know.
"Well then. What is love?"
Love is an object kept in an empty box.
"How can something be in an empty box?"
Well, well, well, well. Gimme another shot of that truth serum.

I went back downstairs to check on my friends
Because truth has a way. A beginning and end.
Big bruiser Ken walks in, says " I like men".
I excuse myself and go back up on the roof again.
Questions follow me.

"Is death really the end?"
Honey I love you, that's all you need to know.
"Well then, what is life?"
Well, that's a good song without you by my side.

People, people there's a lesson here that's plain to see.
There's no truth in you.
There's no truth in me.
The truth is between.

[TordelBack]

"They" is Bill Callahan?!?  Grudamnit, I trusted that guy, never figured him for the engineering-economic-collapse sort.  Still, read it on the internet so etc. 

[The Legendary Shark]

Truth is like a diamond, it has many facets and - no matter in which facet you look - you will always see your own reflection.

[Mikey]

"They" is Bill Callahan?!?  Grudamnit, I trusted that guy, never figured him for the engineering-economic-collapse sort.  Still, read it on the internet so etc.

Nope. Smog was they, now it's Bill. And why do ye think he's always so hang dog? GUILTY CONSCIENCE!

Truth is like a diamond, it has many facets and - no matter in which facet you look - you will always see your own reflection.

Native diamond or cut? 

M.