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C00002 00002	∂02-Dec-80  2318	J. Noel Chiappa <JNC at MIT-XX> 	Waste storage, defeatism and the Golden Age..  
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∂02-Dec-80  2318	J. Noel Chiappa <JNC at MIT-XX> 	Waste storage, defeatism and the Golden Age..  
Date:  3 Dec 1980 0214-EST
From: J. Noel Chiappa <JNC at MIT-XX>
Subject: Waste storage, defeatism and the Golden Age..
To: energy at MIT-MC
cc: JNC at MIT-XX

	Everyone keeps talking about having to store it for 10,000 years,
etc. Foo! In ~100 years (perhaps more, if a Dark Ages intervenes) we
should be able to dig it all up and ship it into the sun via a transporter
booth in orbit around same or SOMETHING like that. Why keep assuming
current-day technology? We can clean up our mistakes, and if we wait
a while it can be down-right trivial. 3,000 years of overgrazing ruined
most of the Fertile Crescent, and while it would have been well-nigh
impossible for the old-timers to fix it, the Israelis, by using modern
methods and knowledge, have done wonders.
	Technology is by no means an unmixed blessing, but defeatism
and pessimism seem to be the order of the day far too often. If you
were given the option, when would you REALLY rather have been alive?
Our problem is not technology, etc, but the fact that 95+% of the
population seem to be unable to make use of the opportunities
avilable. If all the hours spent, say, watching telvision went into
other things (this pre-supposes that people had enough character not
to want to watch television, which would make the products of these
houes worthwhile) how much richer (in textures, not money, dummy!)
might not all out lives be?
			Noel
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∂03-Dec-80  2346	Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC> 	dead ends 
Date: 4 December 1980 02:45-EST
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC>
Subject: dead ends
To: POURNE at MIT-MC
cc: ENERGY at MIT-MC, JMC at SU-AI

I disagree.  If we get a continuous supply of Uranium from seawater and
use breeders to make it last millions of years, we can forget about the
energy problem and get the life that Ike promised us in the 50's.  Then
we'll be able to afford bootstrapping ourselves into space.  Maybe a
fringe benefit of cheap energy will be more time&energy for space?