24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
All Human Acheivement is the Result of Networking
Human achievement is entirely a networking phenomenon. It is by putting brains together through the division of labor—through trade and specialization—that human society stumbled upon a way to raise the living standards, carrying capacity, technological virtuosity, and knowledge base of the species. We can see this in all sorts of phenomena: the correlation between technology and connected population size in Pacific islands; the collapse of technology in people who became isolated, like n...Matt Ridley observes that isolated societies collapse, while networked societies succeed.
16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
O'Neill Cylinders
The O’Neill cylinder is named after an American
physicist and space scientist who sought to engage
his students by getting them to think about big
problems—space settlement, in particular. He also led
symposiums where the concepts behind large, permanent
space habitats—including the cylinder that bears
his name—were hashed out.
The basic principle is fairly simple. Construct a
cylinder at least half a kilometer in diameter so that it
can be rotated at low speed and provide 1 g of art...Concept for a space station with gravity.