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I said:<br>
>> Yes, but one must allow the possibility that artifically
manufactured <br>
> >algae could leverage the sunlight to get more oomph. <br>
<br>
Pedro Pereira wrote:<br>
> As it has already been said "The amount of sunlight hitting the
area of human skin is not enough energty to allow <br>
> homeothermy and movement". What that means is that it is
physically impossible to harvest enough energy from the sun<br>
> for a body with such a mass/surface area ratio to support
him to such an extent. Artificial algae won't change that. <br>
> Alo, I seem to remember that the Green Man is not supposed to
eat, etc. It's almost as if Wolfe forgot that photosynthesis<br>
> is a source of energy but photosynthetic organisms still
need "food" for structural building (growth) in the form of <br>
> other nutrients. <br>
<br>
1) There's plenty of room in Severian's encounter with the Green Man
for undiscussed feeding processes that included taking organic that
did not require killing.<br>
<br>
2) Notice I used the word "leverage". What I'm suggesting is that it
is theoretically possible that the Green Men's algae use the
sunlight to tap power unavailable to us at this time (just as could
be said of nuclear power plants in 1880). If serious people can
imagine an economy running on solar power, Wolfe is not too far out
there. This reminds me of ancient philosophers saying that it is
impossible that the Earth rotates because the resulting wind would
blow us all off the planet. It also reminds me of Wolfe's answer to
those who said the Godling's anatomy was impossible. He responded
[paraphrasing] "That's only true if the godling were constructed
along the same lines as a human [...] I weary of people making
claims about the limits of biological potential."<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western">u+16b9<br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:COL105-W34D9B53A0EC16DCC17078385F50@phx.gbl"
type="cite"><br>
<br>
> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:38:24 -0600<br>
> From: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com">crushtv@gmail.com</a><br>
> To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net">urth@lists.urth.net</a><br>
> Subject: Re: (urth) The green man is a fake<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> >>> Lee Berman-<br>
> >>> The amount of sunlight hitting the area of human
skin is not enough<br>
> >>> energty to allow<br>
> >>> homeothermy and movement.<br>
> ><br>
> > Jeff Wilson-<br>
> > Preaching to the choir, though I hadn't posted about
this since you <br>
> > were yclept bsharp.<br>
> <br>
> Yes, but one must allow the possibility that artifically
manufactured <br>
> algae could leverage the sunlight to get more oomph. Even
today, people <br>
> boost the idea of solar energy replacing carbon fuels in all
our <br>
> vehicles and homes. They expect this even though after 3.5
billion years <br>
> of evolution no creature that uses a significant amount of
energy (like <br>
> say a really lazy alligator) relies on solar energy even
primarily. They <br>
> all rely on carbon fuels and --at best-- gain supplementary
energy from <br>
> the sun. Yet, hope in technological breakthroughs springs
eternal. And, <br>
> this is, after all a sci-fi story.<br>
> <br>
> u+16b9<br>
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