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The Bylaws of the Mars Society provide that, "The purpose of the Mars Society is to further the exploration and settlement of the planet Mars through; 1. Broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering the Red Planet..."
We could initiate a "broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering the Red Planet" by building a virtual Martian settlement that people can visit via the Internet. The software for building a virtual Martian settlement is free and it is named Adobe Atmosphere Builder.
"The Atmosphere Builder application provides tools for building virtual three-dimensional worlds and publishing them on the Web. Users can explore published worlds on the Web
using the Atmosphere Browser. The experience of exploring a world is much like a video game, except that Atmosphere Builder worlds can be linked together and explored over the Internet at realistic speeds, with high resolution, realistic lighting effects, and in full color. Users that are exploring the same world can see representations of each other called avatars, and converse with one another by typing messages in a chat window."
The virtual settlement could have a paperless governance system. This system could be based on document control software that can be used on the Internet. For examples of such software, see http://www.qsolve.com and http://manedge.com. This software would give us the ability to collaboratively build a set of ordinances for a Martian settlement. The ordinances would describe how things should be done on Mars. The ordinances would, in essence, describe "The Martian Way." One ordinance might, for example, provide that, "Time shall be reckoned in accordance with the Martian calendar and timekeeping system designed by Dr. Robert Zubrin."
The virtual Martian settlement might be located at "http://www.martianway.com". This URL is currently available.
Scott
"Analysis, whether economic or other, never yields more that a statement about the tendencies present in an observable pattern." Joseph A. Schumpeter; Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942
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Is that Adobe program a little like a graphical chatroom? Your ideas seem similiar to the concept of an mmorpg where there's an online "world" people log into and out of.
To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd
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I messed around with a Mars based MUSH. Not enough players to make it interesting though.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. -Henry David Thoreau
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Is that Adobe program a little like a graphical chatroom? Your ideas seem similiar to the concept of an mmorpg where there's an online "world" people log into and out of.
Phobos:
An Adobe Atmosphere world can be very realistic. Your avatar can even walk up and down stairways. You can download either the Atmosphere Plug-in or Player at the Adobe website (click here). In the example Stonehenge world, the stars move across the night sky. It's so realistic that it's kind of spooky. Boo!
:0
Scott
"Analysis, whether economic or other, never yields more that a statement about the tendencies present in an observable pattern." Joseph A. Schumpeter; Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942
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When i first saw this suggestion, I immediatly thought of an MMPORG too.
Perhaps something like this would be conducive to building support for Mars- a virtual experience- maybe through in different versions of future mars (KSR, tc)- or even personal views of Mars.
Perhaps even tie something like this into the "welcome to Marsbase" that was suggested elsewhere. Adrian?
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That's a good idea. I'm not normally too hot on these online multiplayer Mars simulations, generally because they are either too boring or not rigorous enough, but an association with a 'Welcome to Marsbase' book/online guide offers some interesting possibilities. I hope to start organising the Marsbase book sometime next week.
Editor of [url=http://www.newmars.com]New Mars[/url]
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Hehe, I don't think I would involve myself with such things, since I would be constantly wishing to mold the online environment to how I envision things. That's the problem with predicting the future, you can't know it.
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
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Different visions of what life on Mars would be like would be interesting- the more diversity of thought, the greater the experience, and the greater the chance that at least one partucular vision will resonante with the general public.
You can't know the future, but we sure as hell can guess it!
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Different visions of what life on Mars would be like would be interesting- the more diversity of thought, the greater the experience, and the greater the chance that at least one partucular vision will resonante with the general public.
I agree that there should be numerous visions of what life would be like on Mars. People who share a worldview could work together to create their vision of how Martian society should be organized.
Scott
"Analysis, whether economic or other, never yields more that a statement about the tendencies present in an observable pattern." Joseph A. Schumpeter; Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942
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