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From: gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Long-Term Viability
Message-ID: <12051@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 06:17:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12051
Posted: Wed Feb 26 06:17:05 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 21:45:31 EST
References: <37378.509789512@lbl-rtsg.arpa>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: gsmith@brahms.UUCP (Gene Ward Smith)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 71

In article <37378.509789512@lbl-rtsg.arpa> jef@LBL-RTSG.ARPA writes:

>In regard to Mr. Gene Ward Smith's flaming response to my essay
>on long-term viability...

   It *was* excessively rude. Sorry about that.

>Mr. Smith repeatedly and completely misses the entire point about
>colonizing the stars.  He seems to think that all of humanity will
>move en masse from Sol system to some other star, then settle in as
>a single-planet species again.  I'm not going to bother pointing out
>what a silly idea this is.

   Don't bother, that isn't what I thought.

>Mr. Smith says he is confused about whether I have a high faith in
>science and technology, or a low one.  My message did not contain
>anything about faith, since I have none in anything.  I submit that
>Mr. Smith is merely confused.

   I submit that the highly emotional tone of both your original posting
and this response shows that my analogy does have some degree of appositeness.
I propose, and am quite serious about this, that there is a kind of hysterical
quasi-religious cult feeling about some of the postings to this newsgroup (a
minority, I should hasten to add).

>Mr. Smith also advises me to learn some astronomy.  Well Mr. Smith,
>I took my first astronomy course in 1973.  I was teaching astronomy
>a year later.  What were you doing in 1973, Mr. Smith?

    I have also taught astronomy, although I am not an astronomer. I
thought *and still think* that Mr. Jef's remarks about Sirius were
preposterous. Incidently, in 1956 at the age of eight I became the
youngest member of the Minneapolis amateur astronomy club. Where were
you in 1956? This kind of argument is silly.

>If I was into giving advice, I might advise Mr. Smith to learn some
>manners.  A little spelling and punctuation practice wouldn't hurt
>either - ambulence?  thats?

   My manners are bad; so is my spelling. On the other hand, the "when in
doubt, attack the spelling" school of argument is worse than my spelling.

>I might also advise Mr. Smith that it's considered polite to give
>proper credit for quotes.  The quote Mr. Smith closed his message
>with, "There are no differences but differences of degree between
>degrees of difference and no difference", was penned by William Blake
>after a trip on nitrous oxide.  I'm not sure what Mr. Smith was
>trying to tell us with this quote - maybe that he wrote his message
>while on drugs?  I would not be surprised.

   First the spelling, then the signature file?  If you want, I'll send
you pictures of my mother's dog and you can tell the whole network how
ugly it is.

   I thought the quote was funny. I also thought it was by Aldous Huxley,
but wasn't sure. Hence my lack of attribution. The emotional tone of this
paragraph and your entire response (as well as the posting I originally
responded to) illustrate the point I am trying to make. I believe this
is a technical issue in a newsgroup that should be devoted to such issues.
Your effusions do not seem to me to be well thought out.

>
>Mr. Smith and I agree on one thing - that net.space contains a lot
>of bull.  But he picked the wrong message to use as an example.  He
>should have looked closer to home...

Siriusly?

ucbvax!brahms!gsmith    Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!weyl!gsmith      "DUMB problem!! DUMB!!!" -- Robert L. Forward