.

KGRKJGETMRETU895U-589TY5MIGM5JGB5SDFESFREWTGR54TY

Server : Apache/2.4.62
System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64
User : www ( 80)
PHP Version : 8.3.8
Disable Function : NONE
Directory : /domains/markrose/mars/

Upload File :

Current File : /domains/markrose/mars/lecture.html

<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>The boss's lecture</TITLE>

<style>
	h2
		{color:#9C8900;}
	h3
		{color:#9C8900;}
	h4
		{color:#9C8900;}
	h5
		{color:#9C8900;}
	h6
		{color:#9C8900;}
</style>

</HEAD>

<BODY BGCOLOR="#F2EED1">

<h2>Lecture</h2>

&#x201c;I don&#8217;t mean that it hasn&#8217;t lasted awhile,&#x201d; continues the boss.  &#x201c;Over two thousand years.  But how has it lasted two thousand years?  What keeps a few dozen systems spread over fifty light years together and cooperating?&#x201d;

<p>&#x201c;Restraint,&#x201d; you mutter, under your breath.

<p>&#x201c;Restraint, that&#8217;s what,&#x201d; says the boss.  &#x201d;Everybody benefits if we accept a few simple rules.

<p>&#x201c;For instance&#8212; no war.  There&#8217;s no such thing as interstellar empires&#8212; Einstein takes care of that.  Bottom line, an interstellar fleet is no match for a whole system, with the manufacturing capacity of a planet or two, that&#8217;s <i>right there</i>.  While, if your invasion fleet gets in trouble, you don&#8217;t even know it till years afterward.  Or if you send enough of your fleet to guarantee victory&#8212; people, metal, expensive weapons&#8212; you&#8217;re going to bankrupt your own ecology.

<p>&#x201d;And as a corollary, you can&#8217;t build an advantage any other way, because you can&#8217;t back it up with force.  You try your textbook economic imperialism on somebody, and the natives are going to get sick of it and line you up against a wall.   

<p>&#x201c;But we have a few common interests, so we have the Incatena.  We facilitate commerce, research, cultural understanding, colonization.  We talk to the aliens.  Everybody knows it&#8217;s not a government, but we call it one, because it sounds better.&#x201d;

<p>The smooth flow of words, especially his own, always calms the boss.  He looks almost happy.  But now a troubling thought seems to occur to him.  

<p>&#x201c;Only once in a while some damn fool comes along who doesn&#8217;t know what everybody knows.  They&#8217;ve got some idiot idea about tactics, or the stock market, or God, and they try to turn the Incatena upside down.

<p>&#x201c;This time it looks like there&#8217;s a whole bunch of damn fools out in the South Quadrant.&#x201d;

<p><center><input type="button" value="Close" onClick="javascript:window.close();"></center>

</body>
</html>

Anon7 - 2021