Re: Reasons for interstellar wars.

: Erik Max Francis <max@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: I wasn't referring to economists, and I wasn't referring to any specific
: claim. The original poster, after all, didn't site his sources, either.

Yeah, OK, but he had aparticular person in mind, even if he didn't
have his sources. And there are several ways these kinds of "impossible"
can go. You can have the sun-can't-be-a-billion-years-old kind of
impossible, and the rockets-can't-work-in-outer-space kind of impossible,
both of which had specific originators (Kelvin, and the NYT, iirc, fwiw).
And the heavier-than-air-flight-is-impossible attributed to Langley,
but either wasn't by him, or was talking about a specific engineering
solution being unworkable.

So there's
* impossible given some assumptions (Kelvin)
* impossible given some misconceptions (NYT)
* impossible claim misunderstood (Langley (maybe))
* impossible claim never really made ( [1] )

So. I was just curious if you had anybody specific in mind for the
sound barrier one. No biggie if you don't; just curious.

If I had to guess, I'd expect the "war will be economically impossible"
one is "impossible given some (unlikely) assumptions".


[1] The "impossible to break sound barrier" may never actually have
been made. And the "impossible to circumnavigate the earth" wrt
the Colombus proposal pretty surely wasn't made... though possibly
both of those are "claim misunderstood".


ayne Throop throopw@xxxxxxxxx http://sheol.org/throopw
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: whew
    ... referring to them. ... those of you with poor news ... The original poster of this ... thread uses stanford.edu--universities/academic servers seem to do a better ...
    (rec.music.early)
  • Re: Macleod and the Destruction of Israel
    ... Al Isinwundalan says... ... I was the original poster. ... If you are referring to me let me state I had ... no intention of being a weaselly punditor an honorary troll. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: I hate to intercede, but Im curious...
    ... >>the place to be a list supposedly espousing the benefits of various ... > In the good old days there were some *economists* on the group. ... Have fun. ... I don't think this actually captures what the OP is referring to. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Microscope for children
    ... I think the original poster was referring to James Swift of London, ...
    (sci.techniques.microscopy)
  • Re: Similar Problem
    ... Given as how your post appears in my news reader not attached to ... it is impossoble for any but the original poster to ... and so others understand what you are referring to. ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)