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The nature of Heinlein?


A wildcat.  Dozens of useless, crazy notions, but with an
occasional insight that stabs deep in a direction no one
else would've thought to go.

In _Expanded Universe_ he reels
off a half dozen ideas about              (That's in the discussion
alternate ways democracies could          of _Starship Troopers_)
be set up.

His early career, focusing on the dream
of space exploration probably did much
to develop public interest in the idea,
culminating (unfortunately) with the
Apollo program...

In his later career, when he wasn't
indulging in the empty absurdities
like "The World as Myth", he was
playing with fantasies of alternate
sexual relationships...

                                They rarely seem much
                                more than just fantasies.
                                                              (Nov 11, 2005)
                                   But strangely enough,
                                   many people interested
                                   in "Polyamory" seem to
                                   have first encountered
  This is a fairly young           the idea in Heinlein.
  culture, with many gaps in
  our customs and institutions.
                                                            I need to see
  Could a healthier,                                        the film "The
  longer-lived Heinlein                                     Lifestyle"
  have helped fill in                                       sometime, to
  some of the gaps?                                         see if they
                                                            namedrop
                                                            Heinlein
                 I once attended a talk                     somewhere...
                 by Thomas Gold, where
                 he was discussing some
                 of the ideas published
                 in "Deep Hot Biosphere".    GOLD

                 He was making the point
                 that forecasts about
                 future natural gas
                 supplies have been
                 strikingly wrong:
                 expert opinon regularly
                 predicts a drop off
                 in the near future.

                 He showed a graph indicating
                 the actual natural gas supply
                 forming a line across the top,
                 with several projections
                 following the curve, and then
                 suddenly falling, as
                 pre-conceptions about the
                 limited nature of "fossil"
                 fuels take over from the
                 evidence.

                    The was one projection
                    indicated on this graph
                    that matched the actual
                    results fairly closely
                    though: a smooth line
                    extrapolated from the
                    existing trend that
                    also happened to match
                    future trends.

                    He said nothing
                    about this one line,
                    but it was clearly
                    labeled: "RAH".  





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