From LISTSERV@listserv.uic.edu Fri Aug 25 10:36:52 2000 Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 12:34:17 -0500 From: "L-Soft list server at University of Illinois at Chicago (1.8d)" To: Laura Quilter Subject: File: "FEMINISTSF-LIT LOG0007C" ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 12:56:05 +0100 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: sc Subject: Re: human-shaping and terraforming MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: Allen Briggs To: Sent: 10 July 2000 21:30 Subject: Re: [*FSF-L*] human-shaping and terraforming > > It depends on the relative costs involved, I suppose. Genetic > manipulation will probably be far, far cheaper (in terms of just > money, anyway) than terraforming. Quite - I can see the arguements if the population is originally planned to be long-term colonists on an only marginaly disadvantageous planet, but in _Blueheart_ the assumption always seems to have been that terrraforming will take place eventually. The creation of an adaptive population that knows they will be doomed to extinction in a couple of generations looks a lot like 'shooting yourself in the foot'. > > An interesting twist might be for such a genetically modified colony > to grow to the point where they consider terraforming Earth (or another > Earth-like planet) to meet their needs. Has anyone seen such a twist. I like this idea - a bit like the Maori activist who planted a flag and claimed England for the Maori people during the Captain Cook bicentenary celebrations a few years back. Cheers SC ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems.