Disasters and Recovery

From: Mark Tapley <mtapley_at_swri.edu>
Date: Tue Jan 19 15:11:31 1999

Ward Griffiths wrote:
>...I really wouldn't expect a modern computer to manage more
>than a few decades at best unless somebody developed a functional
>"stasis field", and we need a major breakthrough in theoretical
>physics -- and the followup engineering -- for that to happen.
>...

Ward, I'm surprised! There are at least two ways to do this with current
physics:

1) put it way down deep in a gravity well. It'll have to be a *big* gravity
well to get the potential difference without generating tidal stresses
severe enough to threaten the structure of the computer. Pull it back out
when you are ready for it.

2) Accelerate it up to near 300,000 km/sec. Take a couple of months, of
course, else you'll generate acceleration-induced specific forces which
again might be dangerous to the classic computer. Run it in a big circle,
then decelerate it again at the destination date. It'll be in *much* better
shape than its twins left at home, per Al Einstein's classic.

Followup engineering, I admit, needs a breakthrough or two.....
                                                        - Mark

                                                - Mark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:

                                Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
Received on Tue Jan 19 1999 - 15:11:31 GMT