You can set the sort order of messages? Just click on the link in the date column. Your preferences will be remembered, so you don't have to do it again when you return.
So with all the talk about nanotechnology the last few years how much progress has been made? I gather it's a lot but we are still far from working nanobots....
... I wouldn't call it "a lot" of progress. I've seen mention of tiny parts being made, for instance individual gears, nuts and bolts, but I don't think...
I can't remember who and haven't got the time to google it but I know some robotics reseaarchers a while back were experimenting with nano technologies at a...
Niven did actually say in 'Protector' or 'Ringworld Engineers' (I think) that Pak Protectors don't actually tend to use automatic systems when they can do the...
... Protectors are paranoid control freaks. Perhaps the *ultimate* in control freaks. My understanding is that this is why they prefer brute-force approaches...
Also, we shouldn't overlook the fact that Tunesmith rose to protector status from a hominid species with sentient, intelligent breeders, which gave him...
I think that's why Brennan Pak Protector was able to out wit the other Pak Protector sent to destroy Earth. 2008/9/25 Robert Ogden <robertogden@...> ...
... Unquestionably, smarter breeders make smarter protectors. Brennan-monster was a lot smarter than the Pak protectors because he was made from an intelligent...
... My impression is that was a carryover from Brennan's original personality. But I could be wrong. I really miss the humor Niven put into his earlier...
I agree with you. I find Niven's later writings not as good fun as his older stuff. Which is a shame as I can see the gems are there - just no longer as raw....
Ok, can we stop populating our universes with humanoids, vertebrates, or even DNA-using life-forms now? Sorry, that's a bit pedantic. I actually enjoy SF that...
So Fred Hoyle is seen to be a loon after all. He championed that idea and was laughed at when it first came out. Then it seemed to gather credence. Now it's...
... No! This experiment proves only that bacteria can't survive in *small* meteorites. I read with surprise recently an article which pointed out that sizable...
From the Burgess Shales fossil record it's reasonable to assume that life may have taken any possible route that involves RNA/DNA - there was so much ...
... Yah, it's total BS that two legs is best. And George Orwell (/Animal Farm/) notwithstanding, four legs isn't best either. Insects have the most efficient...
... That idea is given a stfnal treatment in Piper's /Uller Uprising/ (thumbs up!) and in Alan Dean Foster's /Sentenced to Prism/ (thumbs down!). I have no...
... Erm... I should have read that web page more closely. It gradually turns into a tract preaching Creationist ideas. Well, it's still a good overview in its...
Very close to my thoughts, we could niggle over details that quite frankly are personal taste. For example sugars instead of protiens as the main structural...
Well, you'd be right about sugars. During the dinosaur and earlier period, arthropods reached phenomenal sizes (though now they are restricted by the Oxygen...
Plants here on Earth also use sugars to build tough coverings, hairs, flexible parts, stiff internal 'bones' etc, all structures that might be found in mobile...
... Now THAT is thinking outside the box! A skeleton of tough oak-like material, instead of brittle stony bones, would be an improvement. ... More than two...
Re: Furthermore, if only one sex is the "mother", that puts an even greater burden on that sex to reproduce more often, in order for a species to maintain its...
... Wonderful! The problem (at least for me) of being fairly knowledgeable about biology is that I do tend to "think inside the box" of terrestrial life. I...
Yeh, I tend to favour carbon-water life because of my biological knowledge, I just can't get too far away from that. Then again look up 'mortar rot', to see...
