Hi Kamilla
I intend to blast the neighbours at midnight with the opening bars of Thus spake
Zarathustra at midnight tonight (well, the people in the house at any rate!).
I can't think of any movie that discusses long term zero-G adaptation issues.
It is too difficult to film I guess (although would be great for a serious
animation movie).
Liquid breathing experiments has been carried out on rats and dogs (I think the
liquid breathing rat in Abyss was real, not FX). Humans experiments have been
successful, but involved one lung only. The liquid involved is a fluorocarbon.
The main obstacle for human use is the choke reflex (as the film shows). Also
saturation diving using trimix and other mixed gases (including hydrogen) will
work down to about 1,000 m, which is well in excess of present requirements. If
deeper diving operations are needed then perhaps there will be more developments
here.
Happy New Year
Jonathan
Kamilla ludwig wrote:
> Jonathan,
>
> Thanks for the suggestions. It has been a while since I have seen 2001.
> But I did recently read a novel about AI by an MIT student, Astro Teller.
> It was called "Exegesis", and it made me think of HAL's psychosis in 2001.
> The other interesting thing about the Clarke series was that, in the third
> book, the character played by Roy Schieder could no longer return to Earth -
> having spent so much time in space and low gravity environments, is body had
> adapted and could no longer tolerate Earth's gravity.
>
> I also like The Abyss. The liquid breathing was very interesting, I figured
> it would eventually be worked out.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Kamilla
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jonathan Clarke" <jdac@alphalink.com.au>
> Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 11:39 PM
> Subject: Re: movies
>
> > Hi Kamilla
> >
> > Don't apologize for bring up science fiction. It is an excellent medium
> for exploring "what if questions" with respect to technology and
> > science and its impact on ethics, metaphysics, theology, etc.
> >
> > "Abyss" wasn't bad, the underwater technology was good (not surprisingly,
> as it was filmed largely underwater), and all the human
> > technology is either in service or in the test stage (even the liquid
> breathing).
>
> > Bit of a luddite in this regard, so will let others comment. But 2001 and
> 2010 both say some interesting things about AI, especially
> > 2010, where Hal's psychosis is analyzed and there is the poignant response
> by the backup HAL 9000 computer on trial disconnection ("Will
> > I dream?").
> >
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