This is actually real.

I'll never see Jupiter from the surface of Europa

If our species lives long enough to awaken the collective unconscious into the conscious mind, open your long dead eyes to Jupiter.

Beautiful.

Right now, I'd settle for seeing the earth from the moon.

There are a million solid, practical, sound economic reasons not to go into space.

But they are all trumped by the simple fact that if we don't, we have failed as a species.

The first step is to build a self-sustaining base in Antarctica. Greenhouses, etc.

The second step would be a self-sustaining base on the moon. Then Mars. Then in a space station in orbit around the Earth.

Then... anywhere

I have never understood why people would be satisfied with staying where they are. If they lived their entire lives in a forest and told to stay in the clearing, they'd wander out before long.

Why do people NOT want to wander out? What do we stand to gain from staying here? In 400 years time, should we still be worrying about car insurance and celebrity gossip, or would we rather be taking strides into the universe? Which one signifies progress?

What would some of the greek philosophers have said about us, i wonder? I think people have become too familiar with this reality we find ourselves in.. you put someone in the GTA universe, or Saints Row, and they will experiment and enjoy themselves for hours. There's a real world out there with tangible things that we can experiment with.. but people just want to watch TV or drink themselves stupid. Or maybe they're too exhausted to play and be inquisitive because they've been at work all day.

That was absolutely incredible.

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Is that Rama at 2:15?

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

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.

I was born too damn early :'-(

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