8 ms·

http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/future/mars.pdf http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/future/mars.pdf

zorked 3y ago
This is considerably more interesting that the original link...
cbsks 3y ago
The sci-fi book practically writes itself. A wealthy entrepreneur puts an asteroid in motion to move mars and sets up a long term foundation to keep it operational for the next 40,000 years. In conjunction with the orbital adjustment, terraforming begins and the first enclosed permanent settlements are founded. After the orbital changes are complete, the new planet is open for human development and is renamed from Mars to Musk, after its visionary founder.
- OneDonOne 3y ago
  I thought it was the short stories "Sunken Gardens" and "Cicada Queen" by Bruce Sterling from his Shaper/Mechanist universe. Oh well.
- coldtea 3y ago
  Of course things go horribly wrong, and Mars crashes into earth. The moral of the story being if you don't have ultra-superior technology and experience doing the same thing outside of your own solar system and checking the results to adjust your procedures, then nudging things and seeing what happens at planetary scale is playing with fire.
- justinjlynn 3y ago
  Is there any better embodiment of entrepreneurial capitalism than stealthily appropriating an entire planet, privatising it, and then naming it after one's self? ... I'd be hard pressed to think of one.
MichaelMoser123 3y ago
Wow, thank you! This made my day: "Consider the possibility that introducing an arbitrarily small tame asteroid could throw a planet out of the solar system. This would be a different kind of instability than those that have been so far considered. It would be of mathematical interest to prove that a system consisting of a sun and three planets could be disrupted by a single arbitrarily small tame asteroid."
MichaelMoser123 3y ago
[flagged]
- BearhatBeer 3y ago
  Careful, AI has been known to lie.
  - MichaelMoser123 3y ago
    I know, still I an not sure what is better, asking an LLM or googling? (google search has been quietly deteriorating)
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      LLM approximates throwing the google snippets into a blender so that you can't evaluate anything and the nouns are very likely to get swapped. Googling is much better.
    - ChuckMcM 3y ago
      As time progresses "better" becomes "going to the public library and working with a research librarian to figure it out."
    - dubya 3y ago
      LLM then Google? "The greening of Mars" is not by Stanley Robinson, but by James Lovelock and Michael Allaby. It doesn't appear to feature moving Mars, but terraforming it using 80's technology. I don't think "Green Mars" by Robinson has Mars being moved either. There's nothing on Google for Benford and "Martian Transfer", though it's possible he wrote such a story with a different title.
twic 3y ago
Hans Moravec is really into space elevators. Is there some correlation between being an AI researcher and having an interest in space mega-engineering?
- martincmartin 3y ago
  John McCarthy was Moravec's PhD advisor.
- Sharlin 3y ago
  Almost certainly, simply because they both strongly correlate with being geeks. And SF geeks in particular. And the very particular sort of hard SF geek who feels right at home at Shock Level 4 [1]. [1] http://sl4.org/shocklevels.html http://sl4.org/shocklevels.html and literally on http://sl4.org/ http://sl4.org/
- dekhn 3y ago
  yes, it's known as the nerd space elevator strange attractor. It is frequently observed in nature with its related chaotic entities, the national-scale DC power grid attractor, and the singularity attractor (some argue that all these attractors are really just specific instances of the singularity attractor).
- gumby 3y ago
  It's a nice hard problem with lots of juicy subproblems that you can work on even through the central problem (materials science) is nowhere near being solvable.
effed3 3y ago
I wonder what will happen to the others planets, on a long scale... in a dynamical (chaotic) system stability is not granted, probably a bunch of asteroids-tools are needed to correct the deviation of all others planets form a desired configuration.

This is considerably more interesting that the original link...

The sci-fi book practically writes itself. A wealthy entrepreneur puts an asteroid in motion to move mars and sets up a long term foundation to keep it operational for the next 40,000 years. In conjunction with the orbital adjustment, terraforming begins and the first enclosed permanent settlements are founded. After the orbital changes are complete, the new planet is open for human development and is renamed from Mars to Musk, after its visionary founder.

OneDonOne 3y ago
I thought it was the short stories "Sunken Gardens" and "Cicada Queen" by Bruce Sterling from his Shaper/Mechanist universe. Oh well.
coldtea 3y ago
Of course things go horribly wrong, and Mars crashes into earth. The moral of the story being if you don't have ultra-superior technology and experience doing the same thing outside of your own solar system and checking the results to adjust your procedures, then nudging things and seeing what happens at planetary scale is playing with fire.
justinjlynn 3y ago
Is there any better embodiment of entrepreneurial capitalism than stealthily appropriating an entire planet, privatising it, and then naming it after one's self? ... I'd be hard pressed to think of one.

MichaelMoser123 3y ago

Wow, thank you! This made my day: "Consider the possibility that introducing an arbitrarily small tame asteroid could throw a planet out of the solar system. This would be a different kind of instability than those that have been so far considered. It would be of mathematical interest to prove that a system consisting of a sun and three planets could be disrupted by a single arbitrarily small tame asteroid."

MichaelMoser123 3y ago

[flagged]

BearhatBeer 3y ago
Careful, AI has been known to lie.
- MichaelMoser123 3y ago
  I know, still I an not sure what is better, asking an LLM or googling? (google search has been quietly deteriorating)
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    LLM approximates throwing the google snippets into a blender so that you can't evaluate anything and the nouns are very likely to get swapped. Googling is much better.
  - ChuckMcM 3y ago
    As time progresses "better" becomes "going to the public library and working with a research librarian to figure it out."
  - dubya 3y ago
    LLM then Google? "The greening of Mars" is not by Stanley Robinson, but by James Lovelock and Michael Allaby. It doesn't appear to feature moving Mars, but terraforming it using 80's technology. I don't think "Green Mars" by Robinson has Mars being moved either. There's nothing on Google for Benford and "Martian Transfer", though it's possible he wrote such a story with a different title.

twic 3y ago

Hans Moravec is really into space elevators. Is there some correlation between being an AI researcher and having an interest in space mega-engineering?

martincmartin 3y ago
John McCarthy was Moravec's PhD advisor.
Sharlin 3y ago
Almost certainly, simply because they both strongly correlate with being geeks. And SF geeks in particular. And the very particular sort of hard SF geek who feels right at home at Shock Level 4 [1]. [1] http://sl4.org/shocklevels.html http://sl4.org/shocklevels.html and literally on http://sl4.org/ http://sl4.org/
dekhn 3y ago
yes, it's known as the nerd space elevator strange attractor. It is frequently observed in nature with its related chaotic entities, the national-scale DC power grid attractor, and the singularity attractor (some argue that all these attractors are really just specific instances of the singularity attractor).
gumby 3y ago
It's a nice hard problem with lots of juicy subproblems that you can work on even through the central problem (materials science) is nowhere near being solvable.

effed3 3y ago

I wonder what will happen to the others planets, on a long scale... in a dynamical (chaotic) system stability is not granted, probably a bunch of asteroids-tools are needed to correct the deviation of all others planets form a desired configuration.