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This is an experiment/project idea inspired by Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island" and also the "Biosphere" experiments. I thought it'd be a cool discussion prompt.
In the book, a bunch of men are shipwrecked (well, balloon-wrecked) on an Island. One thing I love about the book, unrealistic as it probably is (the sci-fi of it's day) the men, who include an engineer, don't just start fires and weave baskets, but actually go through the process of creating pottery, and actually mining and creating metallic objects from raw material.
Now, how realistic is this? Probably not very, but just for fun.
What if we ran this as an experiment - a bit like a variation on the "biosphere" projects. Instead of a sphere, however, we take a team of people, put them in a strategic location, and set if they can go from zero to some milestone - say building a small town and 'inventing' electricity and perhaps being able to communicate electronically (telegram?).
We know we CAN do all these things, but when's the last time we did it without an already supportive infrastructure?
What would be the best location? What kind of people would you put there? What would be a cool or interesting goal to set? (Doesn't actually have to be an island, but the people should be isolated).
I think it'd be informative for space travel in a way different, but complimentary to the biosphere projects. Crazy? Or has something like this already been done? I know we've got lots of TV people that we send into the woods to eat squirrels and drink their own pee, but I'm thinking a little grander.
-Dave K
In the book, a bunch of men are shipwrecked (well, balloon-wrecked) on an Island. One thing I love about the book, unrealistic as it probably is (the sci-fi of it's day) the men, who include an engineer, don't just start fires and weave baskets, but actually go through the process of creating pottery, and actually mining and creating metallic objects from raw material.
Now, how realistic is this? Probably not very, but just for fun.
What if we ran this as an experiment - a bit like a variation on the "biosphere" projects. Instead of a sphere, however, we take a team of people, put them in a strategic location, and set if they can go from zero to some milestone - say building a small town and 'inventing' electricity and perhaps being able to communicate electronically (telegram?).
We know we CAN do all these things, but when's the last time we did it without an already supportive infrastructure?
What would be the best location? What kind of people would you put there? What would be a cool or interesting goal to set? (Doesn't actually have to be an island, but the people should be isolated).
I think it'd be informative for space travel in a way different, but complimentary to the biosphere projects. Crazy? Or has something like this already been done? I know we've got lots of TV people that we send into the woods to eat squirrels and drink their own pee, but I'm thinking a little grander.
-Dave K
