Terraformable?

[filkertom]

Scientists find rocky planet at a reasonable distance from an ordinary star.

Okay, we've found a malleable planet -- somewhere with water, maybe a little atmosphere, gravity not too far out of bounds. The colony ship leaves in a year. You have that much time to train, and to get your earthly affairs in order... or to decide not to go. Do you go, and, if so, what three things do you take with you that you can't do without? (Assume computers and whatever software you want, including games and movies, are covered.)

For myself, I don't know that I'd go at this point. Not too old, but too many ties that I don't want severed. (On the other hand, if a certain bunch of friends were going as well, sign me the hell up.) If I had to go, I take the guitar, Da Bear, and my hardcover copy of the Call of Cthulhu rules.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'd be the first up the ramp and over the Repulsor railing! Somebody is going to have to DM all the way there, donchaknow :)

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Well I wouldn't go to THAT planet. That planet sucks. As in, gravity. Assuming the same density, I'd weigh over a thousand pounds. 5.5 gees makes it hard to pick up women...or anything else.

But if you mean, "would I go off to someplace truly habitable that wasn't Earth?" ...eh, probably not. But I would be sorely tempted. I don't know where my chances at happiness and/or survival would be better. I guess my answer might be the same as yours: depends on who else is going. Let's put the Religiously Obnoxious on a ship and send them, instead. There's historical precedent....

[jss]

I thought those folks would go on the "B" ark.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

No no, the religiously obnoxious want this planet so bad? Let them have it. Their policies and beliefs have put our habitat on this poor rock in such a precarious position, let them go down with the ship. Can't have them exporting their idiocy out of here.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Presuming we both pass the physicals & I'm not considered too old for a "fertile female", I'd sign myself & my husband up in a heartbeat. I don't know what possessions I'd bring. I do know I'd make darn sure I've got all my SF digitized - Can't Pioneer without Heinlein.

[annathepiper]

Mmm, tough call. I might go if I were part of a group of my kith and kin going; I wouldn't want to go alone.

As long as computers and all the software I could want were covered, that'd take care of a lot of my entertainment needs--the games and movies, digitized music, and online versions of books would help.

But three other things I couldn't do without... either my own guitar or else my bouzouki, the top two contenders for an instrument to take. Possibly the bouzouki, because it's smaller and lighter and weight might be a factor in how much cargo could go on this colony ship!

My all-in-one edition of The Lord of the Rings, because I could deal with practically every one of my favorite books being in an online format. But if any author really calls out for the tactile feel of an actual book, it's Tolkien.

A good Swiss Army knife, because if I'm going to a colony world, I think I'm gonna need one!

[tpau]

hmm... provided a certain sub-group of friends were going... i'd be there. with all my bujold digitized, and a large supply of knitting, and the little plastic horse my grandmother gave me when i left the Soviet Union.

so... really i have done _almost_ the equivalent before... ht ais a really really odd thought.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Aside from the gravity problems, the planet isn't in it's system's habitable zone. A main sequence M star like that is going to have its HZ at roughly 0.4 AU. The planet is so far outside that there's no way for liquid water to be possible on its surface.

[mrfnord.livejournal.com]

Not to mention red dwarfs are commonly flare stars, so even if there was a planet in the water zone, it's likely that it would get nailed in the face by an X-class flare on the order of once every other month. Sterilization city, man.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, a planet that dense is likely to have a massive core, leading to a healthy magnetic field.

The Auora will be spectacular, all the way to the equator.

[the_rck]

I wouldn't go. My health is too poor, and my skills aren't really a balance for that. Also, I have a daughter to think about. I wouldn't want to take a toddler into the unknown like that. She's not old enough to be consulted, either.

I'm really not sure what three things I'd take if I *had* to go. I'd probably end up aiming for things that the girl would want when she grew up.

Of course, I'd have to devote a largish chunk of my intervening year to scanning every book I could get my hands on...

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

It'd be a tough choice. If a certain lady were to agree to come along, though, it would make the decision quite a bit easier, and with a few more friends along for the ride there's not a chance in hell I'd pass up that opportunity.

What do I take, though? Assuming I've got books and games and movies and such digitized... number 1 on the list would be drawing supplies. Enough to last.

2 would be a tough choice. It depends on whether my Big Box O'Games is one item or more - I've got a single box containing all my favorite games that I carry to whatever gaming parties I go to. Munchkin, Illuminati, Settlers of Catan... If I can have that as number 2, then number 3 would probably be an electric keyboard. (Somehow, I suspect a grand piano would be a bit big. Though a nice colony ship ought to have such a thing in the rec area anyway. I suppose it depends on what quality of ship we have at our disposal.)

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

A deck of playing cards, my copy of the C.R.C.'s Standard Mathematical Tables, and the banjo. Presumably, I'd learn to play it pretty well with only the tables and the cards to distract me on the way.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Setting aside the technical issues of this particular rock, and moving to the general...

I'll assume that "whatever software you want" includes big digitized libraries, so books are not an issue. I like the printed page, but screens will do for such an opportunity.

Beyond that, the only thing I really, truly would need with me is my wife, maybe our cats. All the other physical stuff is, well, stuff. I can live without it. I'd hate leaving my friends behind, but I cannot think of a single person I really call friend who would not tell me to get my butt on board that ship, goddamnit!

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

There's a pretty big loophole in 'whatever software you want': If it's a matter compiler, and an ansible to earth, I could beam up anything or anyone or at least their avatar. Make it a holodeck, and I might as well not have left home.

considering there's always some kind of time lag between my urges and the people who are on the other end of those yearnings, I have to wonder about how to quantify the difference between Logan 7's 'instant fulfillment' of dial-a-mate, and being 4 years away from a postcard. In some ways, I'm already too far away from my loved ones now.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

If it's a matter compiler, and an ansible to earth, I could beam up anything or anyone or at least their avatar. Make it a holodeck, and I might as well not have left home.

All of those have significant hardware components not available today. It isnt enough to have the software that runs an ansible, or a matter compiler - I actually have to have hardware capable of sending messages faster than light, or of asembling individual atoms in specified arrangements. Without the hardware, that software is useless.

Digitized books can already be displayed using current technology, and text doesn't take up that much data-space, so shipping entire libraries isn't that big a deal.

[khadagan.livejournal.com]

If I WERE going (which probably isn't a possibility for various reasons), I'd take my guitar, my song book and my teddy bear. The music and books I'd want to take with are already digitized, so they count as computer stuff.
Hugs -- Khadagan

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

i'm with you. don't wanna go if it means leaving people behind, but if i get to take my people with me, it's travel time. but if i HAD to go...my library (it all goes with or i don't go), my cat, and my sewing machine are coming, too.

[james-rayner.livejournal.com]

Sheesh, toughie.

Well, I would most certainly go. I mean, Cmon. Why not? Not as though I have a life on this planet...

Three items, eh? Well scince I'll have all the music I'll need out there on my computer of some kind, along with my books (Including all my D&D manuals), I'd suppose my walking staff (Passed down through four generations so far!) My book of songs that I know how to sing (Along with staff-paper to write more for the new world!) And some of the ashes of my late, great friend Mr. Delacroix (Who introduced me to science fiction and, among other things, how to roleplay.) who would find it to be one of the coolest things to have them scattered across a brand new world out in space.

[cleverthylacine]

It'll be so much fun playing Call of Cthulhu...in space...with you!!! :D :D :D

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Call of Cthulhu in space... I wonder if that's one of the "53 More Things To Do In Zero Gravity". ;)

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

I'd be first in line. What three things would I take, assuming computers are covered? My husband, my grandson and a backgammon board.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I know what I'd take. A hologram projector, a pregnant cat, and the instruction manual for a Series 4000 Mechanoid model 2X4B-523P.

After all... it's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere...

New planet

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad they're discovering new planets these days at all -- just want to keep hearing the news about them, as often as new ones are discovered. I keep feeling a bit perplexed, though, that they're finding planets around all these distant stars and yet nobody knows about stars like Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri, that the s-f writers have been writing about for years. Maybe we'll know something before I die....

Nate

Re: New planet

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

From what I understand the reason they haven't looked in those places much is that the conditions aren't right. They found this new planet by using the gravity lens effect, where a planet in our system or an in-between star bend the light in the same manner as a telescope. I think (and could be wrong about this) that Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri are out of range for using planets, and there are no stars inbetween.

However, the good news is that due to the increased interest in finding planets, and how the world is overwhelmingly in favor of saving Hubble, there are several projects being started to put a "planet finding" telescope array into orbit, or on the dark side of the moon.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I'm not going unless the colony is so big and so well supplied that it can support a viable, healthy (mentally as well as physically) population of tigers. A world without tigers isn't worth living in.

There aren't that many non-living physical objects that I'd really want to take with me. I'd want both of my guitars, with plenty of replacement strings, but I don't have any other musical instruments I'm really attached to. I have a lot of art objects and toys that I'd miss, but it's hard to come up with which one I'd take.

[sar-anon.livejournal.com]

I would go, though I doubt I would pass the physical. Especially if I could go with my chosen family.

To bring (assuming computer and medical supplies provided): My Katana, carving tools, and something else. Can't really think of the last thing - perhaps a vibrator.

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

You bring call of C'thulhu, I'll bring my Vampire: The Masquerade. Other than that, I think a knife is an absolute necessity for any colonist, and possibly a rifle of some sort to deal with any potential local wildlife of the large and aggressive sort. Sounds like one hell of a party. Where do I sign up?

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Nope. Not the pioneer type. Wouldn't want me anyway.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

a couple sewing machines, a few thousand needles, spindle and a cache of dye materials, and another of predyed thread and fabric, until the base materials are ready to do my own.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I'd be there in a heartbeat, absolutely no question.

As for three things to bring.... does my husband count?

Other than him, let me see - as much danceable music as I can fit on a portable player, the crocheted doll my mom made for me when I was a baby, and a whole lot of crocheting supplies.

(And I'd spend as much time as I could the year before studying storytelling with my friends who are skilled in that art form - I'm betting any sort of community entertainment will be much appreciated....)

[fractalwolf.livejournal.com]

Not counting my wife and assuming gaming books would be in the digitized library...

Probably my teddy bear, dice, and one or more hardcopy books on basic practical skills (like spinning, weaving, tanning, etc) just in case something deprived us of the digital library.

[fractalwolf.livejournal.com]

Or maybe my harp, instead of dice. Tough call...

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

I'm on that ship in a heartbeat - if only because I know Hubby is right behind me. Daughter can fend for herself, although she's probably right behind Hubby given the way she's been talking about space lately. :)

Three things: My crochet stash. The complete works of Robert Heinlein. And my cello, as long as nobody minds me being rusty the first couple months.

...given the number of needleworkers, we're going to have a well-afghanned colony.

[dadandgirl.livejournal.com]

I guess that frees up one of my slots. My answer was gonna be my wife, my kid, and a spare pair of glasses.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't go, not the frontier type. For me civilization has to be at least two days away (and cheese shops half a day away ;-)

But if I had to go, I'd first make sure all digital libraries were backed up in some kind of destruction-proof format (don't want your books on how to grow plants getting wiped out by a magnetic storm on the way), then make sure those libraries had books on everything. Raising livestock, house building, making cloth out of plant fiber, how to make a metal shop, etc. Sure, modern tech is awesome, but sometimes it falls apart or can't handle the environment outside the development lab and when tech support is light years away it's best to have low-tech backups.

As for what three things I'd bring (that can't be duplicated digitally):
1) seeds and cuttings for spices and herbs. You can bet the first ship will have nothing but mainstream plants (hopefully more than one variety, monoculture is dangerous on the frontier) because they'll view spices as trivial. Also, I like the idea of being the only man on the planet who has a vanilla and chocolat plantation, it would be a great pick-up line in bars ;-)
2) cats. As many as I can smuggle on-board.
3) Yeasts and edible molds. Yeasts for breads, beer, champagne, and molds for blue cheese.

mmmm....chocolate!

[fractalwolf.livejournal.com]

*laugh* if my wife and I were legally obligated to produce offspring, we could do worse than a guy clever enough to have brought vanilla and chocolate!

Re: mmmm....chocolate!

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Are you thinking of adoption? I can be had cheap.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't see much of a problem in my going, cuz most of my friends (and I'm sure a sizable chunk of my family) would wanna be hopping on board also. :)

Assuming books are digitized, I'd bring:
1) Either a guitar or a harp (I've always liked these two instruments, and if I'm to go pioneering, might wanna bring along something for actual music)
2) Photos of those I'd be leaving behind on Earth
3) Some piece of Star Trek memorabilia. I was raised on NextGen, and it brought me into the SF fold. I'd think it only fitting to take something of Trek's to a new world...

[jenrose]

On the one hand, I've been training my whole life for something like that. I'd be kickass as a colonist in a lot of ways. Right up until my asthma meds ran out.

If my whole family were going? I might. Depends on what kinds of supplies the colony brought with. I'm not as into roughing it as I used to be.

On the other hand, genetically, while I have great plusses in intellect, problem solving in general, music talent, lots of whatever makes people "smart" and it's genetic enough that most people in my family are well above average, I already have one known specific genetic flaw and have had a child with another probably random mutation, but significant. And the genetic flaw I have affects my ability to bear children safely, especially as I get older.

Sounds like fun though, in an abstract, wouldnt-it-be-cool-to-see-that-on-discovery-channel sort of way.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Okay, we have to assume there's proper house current first, and that the 'computers with whatever software' also includes books (no Asimov, no go) as well as music (no Grateful Dead, no go) and movies/TV (no MST3K, no go). So.

The bass, pedal and amp (all pretty much useless without each other, so I'm gotta count it as one), my golf clubs and more balls than you want to count, and my telescope Elly (named not for Ellie Arroway of Contact but for Elly Kedward of The Blair Witch Project because she makes me go out into dark creepy places far from civilization).

I hate ditching the theremin, but I have the plans for Clara Rockmore's custom therry on my PC, and my data's goin' with me. :)

And since I'm an inveterate rule breaker, His Feline Majesty Random will be packed inside Elly, and Her Feline Majesty Mavis inside the amp. ;)

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

If it's just a matter of which rock to live on, I like this one. If there are people there, my family and I are packed. Software includes my book and music collection, my word processor, and every psychological or anthropological measure ever created along with literature on the norms for humans.

For physical possessions:
-seeds and spices (garlic and other aliums, lavender, maple trees, good tomatoes, cacao, medicinals, etc.)
-Good cloth and a sewing kit.
-a Pagan IPK (Instant Priestess Kit) including a piece of Terran hematite

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I'd at least be mightily tempted. The desire to be in a place in which we have a chance to Start Over and not necessarily repeat _all_ of the sociological and political mistakes we've made up to this point is a definite pull.

I find it interesting that several of the respondents have been commenting that they probably wouldn't be chosen to come along (which suggests a selection process with some fairly specific guidelines, and implies quite a bit about the number of people going and the conditions on the other end, etc.).

Things...I'm assuming that people (including cats) aren't counted against my "three things". I'm also inclined to assume that supplies of various sorts would be provided by the planners of the expedition, so I don't need to use my quota to get things like food, tools, clothes, furniture, etc.

Most of what's important to me in terms of possessions is information: research notes, software, books, music, movies, games, etc. (Yes, a lot of my games have physical parts, but Cheapass has taught us that improvising works just fine, so I'd be happy if I had the rules and diagrams and so forth.)

This leaves surprisingly little. My French horn heads the list. After that it actually gets difficult; perhaps the Unity Candle holder from my wedding, and the flying platypus that appears in my LJ icon.

An interesting exercise...

[shinymarigold.livejournal.com]

Tempting, but I think I'll pass. I couldn't even handle living in Chicago because it was so far from family and friends--living on another planet would probably drive me insane.