Interesting.
Perhaps a medium density asteroid could be used and 'wrapped' in a future, super Kevlar net to hold it together against centrifugal force? I can't recall how, or if they ever said how the aliens created Rama.
If it's an O'Neill, we must only be able to see one portion, since it should rotate in both directions.
Thanks for the links.

It looks like an O'Neill colony (or A.C.Clarke's Rama), but on Erik Wernquist's web page, it says this is a large asteroid hollowed out (7 km internal diameter) and spun up to provide artificial gravity. It would need to be a strong asteroid to hold together - but that would also make it hard to hollow out. Interesting concept. Who knows what wonders may be possible in the future?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Neill_cylinder

http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery_terrarium.html

Actually, the new theory is that the dinosaurs may have been 'wiped out' by an asteroid, but they were already far into an extinction event when it happened. This is proven well by the fact that there are not large deposits of bones in the K-P boundary layer. Climatologists and paleontologists are coming to understandings that the climate was changing on the dinosaurs, making most extinct long before the impact. It wasn't a dinotopia one day and wasteland the next.

Oh, and the rest of the first world IS on board with the theory, and most are more than alarmed. We are fairly alone in our stance that it's not our problem, odd since we (the US) created most of this problem. Our position makes us look like the least responsible country in history.

Trancecoach "In China and India (where pollution is no doubt a significant problem), there are hundreds of millions of people who have far bigger concerns and more pressing problems than some remote notion of a "warming planet" or some looming "catastrophic collapse of civilization." (In fact, the same can be said for the majority of the population of the planet.) "

Isn't that like saying the dinosaurs had bigger problems to deal with than an asteroid hurtling towards earth?

If I had invested all the quarters that I sunk into Asteroids, Missile Command and Defender, I'd be mortgage-friggin' free.

capitalism only really functions well (with regulation) in a world where resources are limited and a lot of manpower is needed to get things done. Thanks to technology, it's only a matter of time before resources are so easy to come by and manufacture into needed things that the supply and demand model will be obsolete.

I suspect that within 100 years, if not sooner, manual labor will be a thing of the past...unless you're an artist or something. Robots will be able to do virtually everything..and better than humans are capable of.

The only people who will still need to have jobs are engineers and maybe technicians, but even then, eventually robots will be able to repair themselves so maybe not even technicians will be needed. Hell, given enough time, nurses and many health care jobs won't be needed anymore because basic healthcare could be delegated to robots.

It's just a matter of time. We're already starting to see the effects of automation in the workforce, we just don't need as many people to get things done. Hell even technical jobs aren't safe because as computers get better and better, They'll be able to analyze certain things better than humans.

The question just becomes what do you do about it? A whole new economic model will be needed. Because we'll eventually be living in the world where unless you're in the academic top tier, you're just not going to be needed in the workforce. At the same time, again, because of technology, we're going to have the ability to feed and clothe AND shelter you for a minimal amount of effort so the prospect of being able to being born, living, and dying without ever NEEDING to work is a real possibility in the not so distant future.

Isn't that what you would call...a utopia? You want freedom? there it is. You'll be able to spend your time doing what you WANT to do instead of what you HAVE to do just to survive. I suspect at some point, there will have to be SOME procreation laws put into place to keep the population growth in check. But hell, even that won't be so bad once we have the ability to colonize other planets.

People will still work, they'll just do it because they want to do it, but they'll be jobs where they're not a necessity or anything. even in an age where a replicator can make all your food, people will still want to cook, or do other artisan style jobs.

But hey, we'll still need defense, gotta blow up or deflect any stray asteroid that comes near us. or just send a bunch of robots up to mine the rock to smitherines so we can use the resources to build our mighty space fleet and our other grand works That Dyson Sphere won't build itself after all

In other words, the human race....has won. isn't that a good thing?

ARRRRRGH!!!! THE ASTEROID BELT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THAT!!!

Very fun.

The ones I spotted were:

Pong, Asteroids, Battlezone, Mario, Gameboy boot screen, Quake, Quake 3, Silent Hill, Limbo, FEZ, Portal, Minecraft, The Unfinished Swan, Super Hexagon, Thomas Was Alone, Half-Life and Braid.

Some could be:
Snake, Rez, Yoshis Island, Dear Esther.

The one at 0:32 is bothering me as I'm sure it's something I played a lot as a kid. Also 00:59 makes me think of the original GTA but I think it's something else from around the same time.

I'm back Chingalera...I took you off ignore. It didn't seem to work anyway.
And actually yes, I can deny that... you accidentally proved the point that climate change is possibly the MOST important thing to cop to (or deny). Contrary to popular belief, the dinosaurs seem to NOT have gone extinct due to the impact, they were already in MAJOR decline and mostly extinct when it hit. The proof of that is that, in the KT boundary layer, there is not an abundance of dinosaur fossils, they are conspicuously absent. In fact, the fossil records show they had been in decline for centuries (eons?) before the impact and were mostly already gone. Climate study indicates that a climate change was likely happening to them long before the asteroid hit, this was apparently the same thing that caused the first mass extinction as well. I wish more people knew this.
To me, that means that it's not so important if you think climate change IS man driven now, one should think it's happening, it's dangerous, and it's controllable to a point, and we should probably work towards either preparing for it's effects or minimizing them, or both.

@Chairman_woo, they claim it's easier to use - they would. It's certainly different and is based around context-sensitive commands. I've seen some of the UI in another video (edit: Trading and Mining, I think, I don't remember when but it's worth watching the whole video anyway) and I believe it works something like when you've selected (by pressing the 'target' key when aiming at it) one of your mining ships and you aim at an asteroid, the 'use' button will tell the captain to mine that.

As I recall, doing this in previous X games was something like going through a menu to select the mining ship, going through a menu to select 'mine', then going through a menu to select an asteroid, then quitting that menu to check the name again because you forgot, and then going through a menu to select an asteroid.

I was very dubious about only being to fly a single spacecraft (yes, literally one ship the whole game - I didn't believe it when I first read it either) but I've been impressed by it's implementation. I wouldn't say I'm 100% convinced, but I'm prepared to hear them out as it were. One very good ship is better than 10,000 crap ones but this rather breaks down if it's not a very good ship.

Yeah, if technology was designed to disable video capture so the police could domestically take liberties without any verification of their actions, I can see this being a major blow to civil liberties and social accountability.

If however, this is just a "movie theatres want this" type thing, then there's no real hype. Plus, the attempt to disable one feature in one brand in a phone, such as the iPhone, would do nothing at all to protect the corrupt officers. It just means no one will buy an iPhone.

But, this is also hype over a patent. No actual device has been made with this. And just because it is possible, doesn't mean someone is doing it. I mean, it IS possible for us to build a space ship to harvest asteroids or space elevators . . . but alas, we are sadly Earth bound for the time being.

If anything, this discussion is what leads to this technology not being implemented, but the irate and irrational discussion does nothing but hype fear that has no rational basis. Except, you know, the NSA really is wiretapping this. . . .

Yes, and completing a spice run in the least distance possible is the actual legit challenge, as the area is strewn with radiation and asteroid fields that usually require circumnavigation, thus, making the run longer than if you could go in a straight line.

If you know the spots where there are no asteroids, or the ship can survive the radiation.....you can do it in a much shorter distance

In 2010, we discovered our first (and only) trojan asteroid for sun-earth at L4. I'm surprised the video didn't mention it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_trojan_asteroid

This damn game! I have sunk waaaay too much time into it.

It's like an abusive relationship. It starts out all nice and friendly.
It's all "you rescued some colonists, have some scrap" and
"here, have a cool new gun" or
"awesome job killing that pirate".

Then suddenly... FACEPUNCH!

Asteroids, bitch! and now you've been boarded. and they've killed half your crew. Look at you, leaking oxygen and simultaneously on fire somehow. You disgust me. Why don't you just explode already?

Oh... you did.

I.... I see. christ, I didn't mean to hurt you...it's just.. look, I'm sorry. I just ... lose it sometimes.

Come back... please.

Next time will be different. I swear. I'll prove it. Here's a new ship!


And like a fool, I think "maybe this time...."

NASA has a plan to retrieve an asteroid and drag it back to earth. I vote we go get Saturn instead...