For the Matrix idea, that's just after we take over the planet and some people are unhappy with our reign. Instead of having to contend with their unrest and tantrum spirals, just pop them in the Matrix of their own free will. They get to live in a world without us, and we get the planet AND the meagre amount of eleticity from their meatsacks. Hell, if we get to the level of technology we're talking about in this thread, we could build a virtual reality simulator (based on DF, of course) that each person could modify parameters in to create their own perfect world. That would also boost our science accelleration rate, since our scientists could test ideas in the virtual world like in Einstieinian Roulette, if anyone's familiar with that. But that's long-term.
Good idea, but a wee bit premature, seeing as no one has enough technology to make the Matrix.
Or most of the proposed things, actually.
Pfft, we play Dwarf Fortress, giving the moon an atmosphere is nothing for us!
That's the spirit!
...Speaking of the spirit, I gave up reading all of it around page 20, after reading a few already. Hey, it's like midnight!
My intention is increasing the female population in order to decrease our dependance on cloning. Besides, I like sex, and this way I will have sex, so is good strategy. The need for females is that makes it possible to create a coupling of both non-bay12ers, with sane children, therefore rebellion could be started. Control must be absolute my friend. We here have a chance to create a pure society, unburdened by such things as sanity, morality, bigotry, ethics. We don't won't this to become yet another outpost of sanity in this world, do we?
Dear God, don't tell me your reasoning is being corrupted by personal pursuits of pleasure before we even get off the damn planet! Alright, time to reorganize our population strategy:
1) Somehow obtain storage of eggs+sperm before embark. Perhaps through the robbing of sperm banks and some less-than-legal surgical practices.
2) Grow test tube babies on planet of colonization.
3) Breed progressively better descendants through the use of eugenics.
4) Use the souls of undesirables to power our technology.
And of course, I mean all of that in the most ethical way possible.
EDIT: Oh, and the molding of mindsets can be done by teaching them to follow strict Mars space cult ideals from a young age. Severly reducing chances of any rebellion.
Alright...I have severe issues with this plan, which I will go over step-by-step.
0. It's a one-generational problem, unless we modify ourselves somehow to produce >50% males.
1. Stick to legal methods. Besides, since the demographics suggest that we have a male majprity, we just need to obtain some equipment for extracting sperm. And some eggs.
2. Nothing too bad with this, I guess, if we have to.
3. Long-term goal, and one we will need to hide from thr world. Eugenics got a bad name from Hitler and such.
4. Far beyond the realm of consideration. Not only have all attempts to isolate the soul failed, but I have estimated that soul-based power would be far less efficient than, say, hooking the people we'd be sucking the souls from to some kind of bicycle generator from...somewhere between 3 and 4 hours. 3.1 something.
Location, Location, Location: I think it was the general concensus that mars wouldn't be optimal due to it's location, but would be great in terms of natural resources. I, though, don't think that the former statement is necessarily the case. Why?:
Anyone with an understanding of orbital dynamics knows that, if you have time to wait, you can get things off of mars and to earth relatively easily. You might also know that cheap dense things can do excessive damage upon re-entry. Also, there is tons of space junk floating in earth orbit that can be qualified as-
[Jesus. This is epic. Flying parallel with a thunderhead at 40,000 feet. You can see all the lightning from a safe perspective. Very amazing view.]
- dangerous if it re-enters in the right path. It boils down to the fact that we can assault earth with gravity.
We'll have tons of refuse on mars. That's a fact. Humans aren't nearly as efficient as dwarves. I say that we freeze it, make pucks out of it, and shoot it at earth. With some advanced calculations and a bit of guidance, we could pepper the thermosphere with little pellets by giving them a wide periapsis/apoapsis variation of 100km/10,000km. Make their own skies rain down on top of them. We can also chuck some big rocks. If we time it right, they won't know what hit them. Gravity is veeerrryyyyyy useful.
I think Asimov wrote a short story about scavengers that would recycle space junk by cabling large hunks to ships and flinging them like bolos. We could do the same with large rocks, aimed straight at earth.
Re: Martian ballistic trajectories: From Luna, a projectile can reach Terra within hours, tops. From Mars, it would take months under mnormal circumstances, maybe weeks if we shell out. Also, Luna is a gun pointed at Terra's head f we use it correctly. Mars? We can't even get a missile (or rock, or whatever) there in less than a year most of the time, what with the stupid sun being in the way or something.
We do need to have a personnel manager or two. I volunteer. I have no plans for the next few months, just some light manufacturing, design, and programming at home to pay the bills. I've already seen some volunteers for roles on this expedition, as well as setting some of the milestones and goals.
Any objections? No? Okay, but run things by me that have to do with gengineering or something, I'm the chief biologist, remember?
Bay12 Community. Best in the world. This is just more proof.
We need a national anthem for our colony(s). And, yes, I know it's colonies, not colonys, but....ugh, midnight...
I've read through the whole thread. Gauss cannon seems a bit too complex - I don't think bolos were ever mentioned.
The Gauss cannon is for firing steel-coated rocks at Terra from Luna. Think of it as the aforementioned gun pointed at Earth's head. A nice tool of psychological warfare, even if we never have to fire it.
a acronym longer then 6 is hard on my brain. I can come up with it, I just need a moment for, elegance, yes, thats what I'm going for.
How about... Dwarven Institue of Gruesome's Department of Engineering the Eldritch and Practical Exploitation of genetic Resources, or D.I.G.D.E.E.P.E.R.
DEEPER for shorthand communication of course.
I'm good at acronyms. Not after, say, 10:30 or 11, of course.
Ah, I'm going on a trip next week, can everyone cope with not seeing my design for the Deep-space Warfare And Resource-obtaining Fortress until then?