Orbit Unlimited: Some Terminology And Another Realization

Poul Anderson, Orbit Unlimited, part three.

"[Kivi] was a short stocky man, with the high cheekbones and slightly oblique blue eyes of the Ladogan." (2, p. 73)

"...the rattle of fantan sticks on a magnetized table..." (4, p. 89)

"He listened, agreed it was practical, but claimed it was not practicable." (4, p. 89)

Fine shades of meaning: one use of "practical" is synonymous with "practicable."

Technical problems also have a human side: how to persuade or induce someone to do what needs to be done. Robert Heinlein addressed this problem in one Future History story, "-We Also Walk Dogs."

Svoboda has a gradually dawning realization of how to solve the human side of the problem:

"A wisp of an idea stirred." (4, p. 91)
"And the knowledge grew within him." (ibid.)
"To lay his plan out openly was to destroy its value." (ibid.)

I will let blog readers (re)read the story. What matters is that it works. The ships leave and the colonists stay.