Merideth Naomi
is now 15 months old
No new pictures posted. Yet.
- Fritz. (Aug. 6th, 1998)
FTL Notes
(1)
Joseph F. Baugher, On Civilized Stars, Prentice-Hall (1985),
pages 162-166.
(2) J.F. Baugher, ibid., page 160. A 56 million year colonization
time frame works out to an expansion rate of approximately 3 light
years every 2000 years.
(3) John McLoughlin, The Toolmaker Koan. This interesting novel
deals with the "koan" or riddle/problem that our civilization has
been confronting since we have developed the capacity to destroy
ourselves.
(4) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 54-88. Most books about the existence
of Extraterrestrial life use one form or another of this equation.
It should be noted that this equation only considers life as we
know it. There is no reason that life might not occur in other
non-terrestrial environments. It can be argued that the most
likely planet in our solar system for finding complex life forms
(other than Earth) is Jupiter.
(5) Carl Sagan & I.S. Shklovskii, Intelligent Life in the Universe,
Holden-Day (1966), pages 409-418. An alternative equation is:
R(*) - Rate of star formation
f(p) - fraction of stars with planetary systems
n(e) - number of planets in star system with favorable
environments
f(l) - fraction of planets that life develops
f(i) - fraction of life bearing planets that develop
intelligent life
f(c) - fraction of intelligent life that develops
technological civilizations
L - the life span of the civilization
N = R(*)f(p)n(e)f(l)f(i)f(c)L
Where N is the number of civilizations and is found to be the
product of the above factors.
(6) Stuart Ross Taylor, Solar System Evolution: A New Perspective,
Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge (1992), pages 45-50.
(7) S.R. Taylor, ibid., page 178.
(8) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 103-112.
f(life) = 1.0
f(int) = 1.0
f(tech) = 0.5
I agree with the value for f(life) and feel that f(int) is
probably the right magnitude. There is a good body of evidence
that we share our planet with other intelligences right now. The
great apes and cetaceans being notable candidates. The fraction
f(tech) is more problematic. Tool users of the type that humans
are have a fairly specialized set of other physical capabilities
that make use effective tool users (prehensile hands, an advanced
form of communication) so it is not obvious that this value should
be as high as Baugher sets it. None the less, even if we down the
grade value an order or two of magnitude we are still left with
very significant numbers of advanced civilizations.
(9) C. Sagan & I.S. Shklovskii, ibid., page 418. The dispersion for
these civilizations would be 200 to 1000 light years, on average,
separating them.
(10) J.F. Baugher, ibid., page 150.
(11) S.R. Taylor, ibid., pages 276-278.
(12) S.R. Taylor, ibid., page 53.
(13) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 119-120.
(14) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 138-142.
(15) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 147-149.
(16) Robert Forward, Rocheworld (originally Flight of the
Dragonfly) presents an excellent vision of a near future manned
probe to a nearby star.
(17) S.R. Taylor, ibid., pages 73-76.
(18) J.F. Baugher, ibid., pages 160-161.
(19) Stephen J. Gould presents many good examples of "evolutionary
hacks", such as The Panda's Thumb.
(20) Elaine Morgan, The Scars Of Evolution, Souvenir Press (1990).
This book is an excellent evolutionary survey of the human
condition.
(21) Greg Bear, The Forge Of God and its sequel The Anvil Of The
Stars present an interesting perspective of what it might be like
to live a galaxy with "aggressive" colonizers.
(22) Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" series gives a sinister view of a
von Neumann type machine colonizer/anti-colonizer force, i.e. a
machine intelligence that is self reproducing and which is hostile
to life.
(23) Ian M. Banks' 'Culture' books (such as Consider Phlebas) give a
view of how a deep space culture might be, albeit with FTL drive.
(24) Larry Niven's Ringworld is a good example of what a the
resources of a whole star system can be converted into.
(25) The Hubble telescope is intended to discern large planets or dark
companions orbiting nearby stars.
(26) James P. Hogan, Thrice Upon A Time presents such a disaster.
(27) John Brunner, The Sheep Look Up.
(28) John Brunner, Stand On Zanzibar.
(29) Vernor Vinge, Marooned In Realtime.
(30) There are a large number of novels dealing with various forms of
cosmic or astronomical disasters. Ranging from Fred Hoyle's The
Black Cloud (our solar system enters an interstellar dust cloud
sufficiently opaque enough to reduce the sunlight reaching earth)
to the various impact scenarios such as Larry Niven & Jerry
Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer.
(31) John Burke's excellent Connections television series and
companion book make point of this.
Merideth Naomi
is now 15 months old
No new pictures posted. Yet.
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