Thursday 3 October 2019

The Next Frontier: An Anticipation

The Devil's Game, INTERVAL ONE, p. 34.

Ellis describes oceanography as the coming thing and the next frontier. He does not mention astronautics. Instead, he lists:

oil
metals
tide motors
scientific fisheries
food
plastics from plankton
seaweed
a million invested to become a billion

Thus, he anticipates Maury Station, a sea station and Delfinburg.

When Larry says that the phytoplankton supplying half of Earth's oxygen are becoming contaminated and that oil slicks are bad whereas whales and elbow room are good, Ellis replies that eco-freaks lack imagination. Really? A lot like that is being said now.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

All of these things are worthy and desiralble, and in fact Robert Zubrin discussed some similar matters in his book THE CASE FOR SPACE. But managing and developing the ocean cannot and will not be the next frontier the human race needs so much. Only by turning outwards into the Solar System and the galaxy can the human race TRULY make use of its potentialities.

Ad astra! Sean