A work colleague said, "A clique was developing. And I'm not mentioning any names. And Richard was in it!" He had completely forgotten the second sentence when he uttered the third. Nicholas van Rijn speaks in what sounds like a similar way but, in his case, every word and thought is under his control:
"'...is the human brain a turtle just because it is armored in bone? A parasite just because it lives off blood from other places? Well, maybe some people I could name but won't, like Juan Harleman of the Venusian Tea & Coffee Growers, Inc., has parasite turtles for brains. But not me.'" (p. 608)
(Tea and coffee growing on Venus. If only... SM Stirling gives us a retro terrestroid Venus in The Sky People.)
Is Harleman a distinguished competitor whom van Rijn must pretend to despise or an economic "parasite" whom he does in fact despise? If ever we met Harleman, then we would make our own assessment. But, meanwhile, we have reached the end of the last story in The Van Rijn Method and must decide what to read or reread next after a night's sleep and some other responsibilities.
Today: The herons at Muncaster Castle still remind me of Ythrians.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And see Jerry Pournelle's article "The Big Rain" for how he made real suggestions for BEGINNING the terraforming of Venus as long ago as the 1970's, using technology then or likely to be soon gained. Then the growing of tea and coffee on Venus might not seem so unlikely!
I suspect Old Nick's comically derisive comments of Juan Harleman, CEO of Venusian Tea & Coffee Growers, Inc. is NOT despised by van Rijn, but respected by him as a tough and able competitor. Old Nick was capable of speaking seriously of people he TRULY despised, or kinds of people, as we see in "The Master Key."
When I think of how much could have been done in space the 1970's, beginning with the technology then available and improving on it, my own anger and contempt for certain kinds of people GROWS! Beginning with those who are merely disastrously short sighted and unimaginative to cold, icy fury for those who are deliberately and knowingly hostile to any idea of mankind escaping Earth. E.g., see Anderson's comments in the "Commentary" he wrote for SPACE FOLK.
Sean
Sean,
I think that more has been learned about how hot and inhospitable Venus is since the 1970s?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Granted! And I am sure Pournelle himself would have said that his suggestions would need to be modified in the light of increased knowledge of Venus. A manned expedition should have been sent there to build a habit orbiting Venus to be used as a base for studying that planet!
Instead, all that US politicians seem capable is bickering over welfare or pork for their constituencies! With the better politicians forced to concentrate on opposing the most disastrous ideas of other pols.
Sean
I meant to say in my second comment above that I would support the building of of an O'Neill style HABITAT (not "habit") orbiting Venus, to provide a long term base for the study of that planet. With an eye for using the information thus gained to begin the terraforming of Venus.
Sean
Sean,
I think that space habitats are more hopeful than planetary colonies. The habitats have to use solar energy and become self-sufficient ecologies. Soon. And help Earth, which meanwhile has to be getting its own house in order.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
For the Solar System, yes. I see a place and role for O'Neill habitats in this system. But I would still advocate colonizing Mars (and terraforming it). And to use such a habitat for orbiting Venus.
Again, I feel anger over how little has been done about getting OFF this rock during the past forty years when a START could have been made using already available technology. That is why I still recommend reading Pournelle's A STEP FARTHER OUT, old tho that book is. Because so much of what he suggested in it has not even been TRIED.
Sean
IIRC, Venus is terraformed in the Technic History. It's probably doable. Venus is physically very similar to earth.
Venus had water oceans once; what seems to have happened is a runaway greenhouse effect due to enormous shield volcanos spewing out carbon dioxide, plus not having the feedback carbon-fixing cycle of plant life.
(Earth's atmosphere is the product of photosynthesis; without it, we' d be a lot more like Venus.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, Venus was terraformed in the Technic series and in the Pyschotechnic timeline. And stand alone stories like "Strange Bedfellows." And I have seen descriptions of how much like Earth Venus might have been.
And the idea of a Venus with oceans brings to mind Anderson's "Sister Planet." A truly heart breaking story, btw!
Let's SEND an expedition to Venus to build an O'Neill habitat and study how to reverse that runaway greenhouse effect!!!!!!!
Sean
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/233103-new-climate-modeling-shows-venus-may-have-once-been-habitable
@ Sean, how much will YOU be willing to pay for space colonization and terraforming?
What will you be willing to give up to make it happen?
How long will you be willing to wait for it to work?
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Venus,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus#Aerostat_habitats_and_floating_cities)
Cheers,
kh
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