I would imagine so. Most of our atmosphere is Nitrogen. Makes one appreciate the moderating features of earth...it's a system that seems to be always balancing itself out.

I did not know that. I assumed plants always produced oxygen. Now that I think of it, I should have known. Photosynthesis requires light. I still would not have thought the process reversed itself at night. Can there be too much oxygen?

If you want to know where the materials are, just look up on a cloudless night.

As you know plants take in CO2 during day time and expel Oxygen. They do the opposite at night. Given equal amounts of day/night times makes it a wash in terms of oxygen or carbon dioxide production.
The left and environ[mental]ist are always screaming about cutting down trees and reducing the amount of oxygen to breath.

Good point. After all, we are now using cornstarch to make plastic.

All the more reason to stop wasting resources on plastic that is just going in the landfill. Also, could you elaborate on the Ox-day/CO2. I think it has something to do with oxygen and carbon dioxide. Plants inhale(for want of another word) CO2 and exhale OX. And we stand around like vultures waiting for the oxygen while breathing on the plants.

I read the same research...sorry Enyway...can't remember where...I read too much stuff...can't save it all right? But it's not settled science but the research stated that old played out wells are now showing reserves. If you think about it, if oil comes from fossils of living things then it should be everywhere!

I have not heard of that research. Who are those that contend?

As in Idocracy the movie, where a precisely average man (Joe) and woman (a rented prostitute named Rita) are put in suspended animation which is to last a very short time, but the project gets canceled, they get forgotten about/abandoned and they are awoken several hundred years later to find a world which as "devolved" and facing extinction due to their lack of basic scientific understanding. In particular a lack of ability to grow crops due to using "Brawndo" (IIRC) - a Gatorade substitute, in place of water has led to a recurrence of the dustbowl and famine.

Joe and Rita are comparative geniuses with the rest of the world having been "dumbed down" by dysgenics and "smart" choices by the non-idiots to not have children. It is quite the satirical piece which is where the similarities begin to break down of course.

But the setup is close enough to me to wonder if the progenitors of Idiocracy had seen/heard of the Genesis II pilot/premise, though it is more likely to be a take on "the Marching Morons" which is closer and may also be an influence to Roddenberry for Genesis II.

Oh and side gem: Dylan Hunt was the name of the captain in Andromeda. ;) GR used that name in a few places it seems.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I'll hazard a guess. In crafting Genesis II, Roddenberry assumed that mutants automatically get stronger, hardier, more robust, etc., etc. So that the mutant or Tyrannian race was in fact a new species. And this new species would automatically lord it over ordinary humans, and treat them little better than animals. The mutants built (or had built) a city, Tyrannia, in which the mutants lived lives of almost decadent luxury, while their human "helpers" (read: slaves) toiled in the craft shops, or if they were really "lucky," performed personal or household service.

While on the other hand, the humans, who called themselves Pax (Latin for "Peace"), held control of the same underground sub-shuttle system that brought Dylan Hunt (the NASA scientist) to the original Carlsbad Caverns base in the first place. They sought only to bring about peace. They somehow hoped to make that peace, even with the mutants. And they swore to one another that they would die, and let others die, rather than kill.

Oh they're perfectly happy as long as it is short, no kickstarter stuff, and of crappy production quality per recent "guidelines" from CBS on how-not-to-get-sued-for-fanfic.

I think it was primarily driven by: Axanar.
http://www.newsweek.com/star-trek-fan... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1_8... for the prelude.

I'd watch it, and I suspect I'd enjoy it. But it looks good, has pretty reasonable production quality, and has real actors in it. It is probably better than what CBS is working on anyway. ;)

In a way, it is a more prescient scenario to the 3D printer. The technical capability to produce shows on par with, or better than, big studios is already sitting on my desktop for example. It may all be that following this aspect might give an inkling as to how 3D printing may go.

Wow, there is so much Idiocracy plot in that premise. :D

Of course, with the management of the Star Trek IP holders, nothing innovative is likely to see the light of day. (Not to mention that rebellion against the socialist FED-eration is the opposite of the mainstream media's propaganda objectives.)

Yes, I remember Gene Roddenberry's Genesis II pilot, that failed completely. His premise: a NASA scientist wakes up after an experiment in suspended animation. He's supposed to be out for a week. But an earthquake buries the lab, and him in it. 154 years later, a team of human refugees (for lack of a better term) uncover him, find him alive, and wake him up. Wake him up to a world trying to recover from a nuclear war. A world split between traditional humans on one side, and mutant super-humans, or Tyrannians, on the other.

The Diamond Age is a Neil Stephenson book set in future Earth (arguably about a century after Snowcrash) in which we have full-control nanotechnology. Which means we have "replicators". But rather than assuming human nature fundamentally changes, it goes into the more gritty reality. It mostly centers around an unauthorized copy of a "Primer" - an adaptive book aimed at teaching a child about life and how to be a good person. It highlights some of the effects of being able to replicate your basic needs and doesn't really spare the downsides.

Damn, now I want to reread it again. ;)

If you haven't seen the first season of Andromeda, or even the first couple episodes it sounds similar - there is a revolution and the "Commonwealth" collapsed. Then it jumps a thousand years or so (its been quite a while since I last watched it, so bear with me please) to where you get "Hercules in Space". Of course, the races are different, and the technology is as well, but you can see the original types. Now, the ST<->Andromeda tie-in may well be apocryphal. I recall at the time it was launched that it was described that way, but of course sources are nearly impossible to find nowadays. Roddenberry had floated the basic idea several times in different ways, so it being an alternate of the STU is conceivable, as is it merely being another idea he had that just didn't get traction. However, I did find watching it with the notion of it being an alternate post-federation series an entertaining one.

A few other little items. The Niners and the Voyagers will form the core of the rebellion. The Niners were on the front line of the Dominion War. The Voyagers got used to an economy of up-front-acknowledged scarcity and developed a more realistic economy--"rep rats" as the unofficial currency on board, and a native guide and cook to serve them real food most of the time.

In fact, for that Nuremburg-style trial I mentioned, I'm thinking the good ship Voyager, under the command of the former eager-beaver Ensign Harry Kim, will revisit the Delta Quadrant and bring back that native guide, along with twelve other members of his race, to serve as judge and jury!

Interesting.

The Diamond Age? Never heard of that. Tell me more.

As to the rest: that's why I started writing my own outline for a series, that picks up 17 years after the end of the Dominion War (and 15 years after the return of Voyager), in which the American Revolutionary scenario plays out on a galactic scale. It begins with clear signs that the Federation economy is showing its weaknesses. Weaknesses the PTB's kept well-hidden. And it ends with the fall of the hidden Federation power structure, and with some Nuremburg-style trials.

Not necessarily true...oil may be a renewable resource...only time will tell if this is true.
What the paper/plastic creature don't get is that paper is easily recyclable, doesn't take as much energy to produce, is a natural product that degrades well and cleans up the forests also...(something BLM has no clue about). Plastic doesn't degrade very well, not to mention all the problems it may cause. These creatures also don't get is the Ox-day/CO2-night of trees and plants is practically a wash in terms of benefit to the earths atmosphere, depending upon the amount of day light versus night.

That is what happens in the netflix serials of "Dark Matter"...it's a riveting show.

I like that...

Perhaps...but nothing compared to what the mind can do. A computer cannot have an insight into something it has little knowledge of. The human mind does this all the time.
Problem is, not all humans have access to a mind and those that have do not necessarily use it.

Yep, i t was a result of the extension and tug-of-war between Roddenberry and the writers. Roddenberry kept insisting there was no currency of any kind, but the writers kept inserting it. It is one of the most inconsistent bits in the entire setting. For example, in DS9 Sisko threatened Quark on an occasion or two with things like collecting back-rent from him as leverage to get him to do stuff as well as mentioning Quark would have to/did pay for repairs. There are also references to Starfleet credits, hinting that "money" is gone but currency is not - despite Roddenberry's insistence.

The basic notion that they could not just replicate anything is also belied by the construction of star ships, and that in many cases they can't replicate parts for their own ship. There are many holes in the dictum and there are surely many more people writing abut how it all makes sense when the reality is that it doesn't because G.R. never had a consistent method or option. He just insisted n his personal belief that money in any form doesn't exists. I've read a few essays that try to explain away the many references to a form of currency and most wind up trying really hard to explain that it using something to decide how to allocate resources even in a world of replicators is not the same thing as currency. Yet in each of the series and in some of the movies there is very clearly private property. Once you allow for private property to exist you can not escape currency or barter.

Roddenberry's insistence on "no money", and his apologists for it are basing the entire setup in the irrational belief that if we could replicate "anything and everything" you need that magically the human race instead works "to better humanity". The socioeconomic and political aspects of the Star Trek Universe's Federation are logically impossible to reconcile, and for the same reasons the underlying philosophies of Roddenberry are impossible to reconcile - they reject actual, objective reality and substitute their own inconsistent and ineffectual one. This is why when it comes to claims of "post-scarcity", I prefer The Diamond Age to ST.