Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!NOTE.NSF.GOV!fbaube
From: fbaube@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Fred Baube)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: 2010
Message-ID: <8802261606.aa19896@note.nsf.gov>
Date: 26 Feb 88 21:05:57 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 19


Isn't it inevitable that somewhere along the way Jupiter will
undergo stellar ignition ?

I read somewhere that Jupiter could have been a star, if only the
same quantity of matter were more compact, creating higher
internal pressures.

I'm assuming that there is a chemical process that is exothermic
(i.e. creating a net energy output, or breaking even, but not
requiring an energy *input*) that can process the constituents
of the Jovian atmosphere into denser products.

If this is the case, then won't some biotek jock invent the bug
that will perform this process ?  And if it's invented, won't
some wise guy let it loose ?

More philosophically, isn't any process that increases entropy
bound to occur, no matter how great the scale, so long as people
can evade the XEPA (Xeno-Environmental Protection Agency) ?