Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven.umd.edu!uvaarpa!murdoch!dalton.acc.Virginia.EDU!ds4a
From: ds4a@dalton.acc.Virginia.EDU (Dale Southard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: SimEarth
Message-ID: <1991May10.202824.21274@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 10 May 91 20:28:24 GMT
References: <65249@brunix.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 45
Ireallyam: ds4a

In article <65249@brunix.UUCP> cs012070@cs.brown.edu (Dan Goldman) writes:
>
>  OK, Here's a question for you SimEarth junkies.  The two most difficult problems, (for me, anyway) are global warming and advancement of civilization.  Global warming, of course, can be controlled by reducing Solar Input, Greenhouse Effect, etc., but I 


Well, I am not a god (on the other hand...I guess anyone who owns SimEarth IS
a god in a way) but here is what I have found.

I think the global warming is just a question of the constantly increasing 
solar input.  I haven't been having as much of a problem...I'll say more later.

I have found that civilization advancement is "best" handled according to some
current theories of "burst" evolution.  Things tend to stagnate until a radical
change in the enviroment makes then change all a once.

I try to keep my civilizations at the same tech. level until they are almost all
at the upper level.  I just put my enery into arts/med/philo to keep them all
happy healthy and peaceful.  Once things are fairly even I throw almost all the
energy available into science -- I mean almost all, 60+ hours a week, max invest
ment in fossil fuels etc.  It works fairly well as I have several planets at
exodus without ever "monolith cheating".  But the fun of this thing is finding
interesting ways to make things happen, so I am working on other ways.  Note
that while "coasting" at a lower tech level, I reduce the use of poluting energy
hence little problems with resource shortages etc.  The same approach works for
global warming -- I concentrate on keeping the biomass as high as possible --
not advancing evolution.  The lack of CO2 goes a long way towards preventing
global warming.

Now for some other questions:

Has anyone come up with a reson why the fossil/atomic fuels just run low, not
out?  I have theorized the synthesis of more fossil fuels, but atomic ones (
breeder reactors?) ??

Good ideas for disabling that obnoxious copy protection?  (I know, small price
to pay for a good program, but I still hate paging through my manual, even if
I am educating myself).


Well I have to go.  Now that finals are over, I am working on spient robots
without the monolith.  I'll post the process, if anyone wants it (assuming it
works).


-->  -->  Dale  UVa  (ds4a@virginia.edu)