(urth) "been teaching literature for over 35 years"

[Jeff Wilson]

On Sun, September 8, 2013 21:38, David Stockhoff wrote:
>
> On 9/8/2013 9:55 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> On Sun, September 8, 2013 17:40, David Stockhoff wrote:
>>> On 9/8/2013 6:07 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>>>> Back in ~1980, I believe the isotopic decay source was the only one
>>>> generally recognized, and it's possible that the metal depletion
>>>> mentioned
>>>> in the Book would be of*radioactive*  metals, powering the great ships
>>>> and
>>>> robots aboard them. This explains a possible reason for there to be
>>>> still
>>>> funeral bronzes and moveable type in a metal poor world, and of course
>>>> isotopes sent into space can't keep the crust lubricated.
>>> How far down would humans have to strip the mantle (using robots, of
>>> course) to mess with tectonics? Wouldn't the entire planetary surface
>>> have to be mined? or just where plates meet?
>> I have no idea, but it seems like no coincidence that *everywhere* in
>> Sev's time anyone happens to delve into the earth, there is already
>> evidence of previous diggers and builders.  Even underwater, he
>> discovers
>> another huge drowned city beyond his own huge, newly drowned city. It
>> apparently took only a few centuries to carve faces into every mountain
>> in
>> Sudamerica with the gear Typhon brought with him and was able to
>> scrounge,
>> and there have been many nations on Urth for many chiliads before
>> him....
>>
>
> That, and the bits of plastic everywhere. Well, that would do away with
> any need for truly geologic time scales to explain Severian's remarks.

I'm not sure what you mean? What is it called?

I would think that any volume of plastic would indicate either enough time
for new petroleum to form, or that not enough time had yet passed for
processed plastic to crumble.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >
A&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab
< http://www.tamut.edu/cil >