Will, money, and willingness are resources I had in mind, to some extent. However, I think space technology itself has made but scant improvement since Apollo 11. I'll never forget July 20, 1969. I suppose few sci-fi buffs will. It was a magical moment. There have really only been a few. Viking. Voyager. A few others. Space travel itself is a practical impossibility. Although there have been some discussions in scientific periodicals recently about something which actually travels faster than light (I forget the term), this is largely theoretical; and has no practical application. We haven't made any measurable progress in fusion technology, and even if we do, the laws of physics, unless we find some new ones, together with logistical impossibilities, render interstellar travel nothing more than a fantasy. Speculation is nice, but I've never seen anything but sheer speculation which would lead me to believe that faster-than-light, controllable speeds are possible. Thus while I believe intelligent life exists everywhere in the Galaxy, I don't personally believe any of it will ever see any other of it. This is just my view, based upon what I know, and subject to change if anything new pops up. Something will have to pop up, though, before I change it.

It's why I've never believed in UFOs, even though when I was in high school I saw something bright in the night sky which moved horizontally so fast, and changed direction and rose so quickly, like ninety degrees in an instant, then up and gone, that it could only have been a UFO. I still can't explain that. A friend I was with saw it too.

Such an overly-realistic approach to such things really doesn't dim my enjoyment of Sci-Fi, with its sub-light, hyperspace, warp drives, etc., any more than my enjoyment of Barsoom is harmed by my own knowledge of the probable success of the sleep-in-cave-with-beast mode of interplanetary space travel.

I do think we have about as much chance of reaching much closer stars than that Farthest one as we do of teleporting to Barsoom. In fact, I'm staking my personal belief on the second one much more.

Tarak, waiting to teleport

Subj: Re: Ballworld

Date: 97-11-24 21:38:43 EST

From: Zone agent

To: erblist@beginners.net

I know this will probably touch off some bitter, deeply resentful feuding between the Flat-Earthers, some of whom have already posted; the Horizonists, who actually believe we live on a spinning ball, without falling off when we are upside down, and in fact without even realizing we are upside down; and the Pellucidarians, who refused to even acknowledge the existence of a horizon, much less the Flat-Earthers and Horizonists; but does anyone know if Larry Niven had read about Pellucidar before he wrote "Ringworld"?

Tarak, happily living on stable Aantor