(Kiri revises a project she had assigned us where we had to plan a colony of 10,000 people. Plans had to include now the trip itself and new details to consider. She also talks about the colonization efforts of the Sirians.) 

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Kiri: I want a progress report on your projects.

Russ: the 10,000 people.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: oh.

Russ: I don't have one so I've got a month to work on it though so....

Kiri: yeah but just interest for my sake.

Skip: I think I've got it pretty well figured out to where I come down at okay but I want to do a little bit more research.

Kiri: okay, that's good, that's good.

Skip: I really do because I'm looking at how they're going to handle summer, winter.....

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: growing seasons, water, fuel.....

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: light and dark.....

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: housing and a growing period and what can be grown.

Kiri: okay, have you looked at environmental factors such as the safety of the land, the surrounding areas, precipitation?

Skip: a little bit but not that much because there's several different areas where this can be established to defend yourself against wild animals or even if the 10,000 people split up and they become two tribes or four tribes or whatever, you still set up a defensive environment with still all the other things with it.

Kiri: uh-huh, you've thought this out very carefully, I'm impressed.

Skip: well the defensive idea or mode of this thing is going to be of the lowest priority for me. The biggest priority is feeding these people.....

Kiri: oh of course.

Skip: and housing them and clothing them and being able to make it through the year.

Kiri: okay.

Skip: okay?

Kiri: uh-huh, I've actually picked a location that I believe is ideal but I can't disclose that.

Skip: no, no, no, no, no, just let me pick out my own location.

Kiri: of course, of course but also what I want to do when I tell you my location is to pick fault with it.

Skip: no, I don't think so.

Kiri: when the month time is up.

Skip: okay.

Kiri: okay let's...

Skip: I've been working on it.

Kiri: that's good, that's great, it's a nice little project isn't it?

Skip: yeah.

Kiri: it keeps you very.......gives you lots of things to think about and lots of variable factors. Now why did I give you guys this project?

Skip: to keep our mind occupied probably.

Kiri: and there is a learning lesson behind it.

Skip: I'm sorry?

Kiri: there's a learning lesson behind it.

Skip: oh is that right?

Kiri: uh-huh. I will reveal that at the end of the month.

Skip: okay.

Kiri: okay Russ, how are you doing? I know you haven't thought about anything as you just said that you didn't.

Russ: right. I have some questions about it.

Kiri: okay.

Russ: and that is, we are picking a place on earth.

Kiri: that's correct.

Russ: now, is this place prior to civilization?

Kiri: no, it is right now.

Skip: oh right now?

Kiri: yes but the planet is uninhabited with what you have on your planet.

Skip: ohh right now?

Russ: let's say it's a major city, wouldn't you have to deal with the buildings and stuff that are already there or do you imagine that they're not there?

Skip: that changes a lot.

Kiri: there's nothing there, there's nothing there, it is your planet as it is now but with no inhabitants and no history. It's a fresh planet but your planet now in your 20th.....

Russ: so we have to imagine a place in present time without the buildings.

Kiri: correct.

Skip: okay, the cites are gone. Okay there's no hard top and cement.

Kiri: no.

Russ: but there wouldn't be any trees either.

Skip: that would be correct.

Russ: because that would be the future and not a past time when there were trees and then they were all cut down to put the city in.

Skip: that's right. The city's gone.

Russ: so the city is gone but so are everything that would've been there prior to the city being there.

Kiri: correct. It is right now. For example......

Russ: these are important keys for me to know before I start making any serious....

Kiri: let's take your current location right? 200 years ago it was a nicely tree'd area.

Skip: uh-huh.

Kiri: where the trees weren't too densely, they weren't tight together, they didn't have all the diseases and everything that they have now. It's now but the houses aren't there, the people aren't there.

Skip: okay alright I gotcha, I gotcha, that changes things.

Kiri: I should've been more clearer on that.

Russ: no but I was thinking about that right after I left and going, "wait a minute, what do I've got to plan on here."

Skip: uh-huh.

Kiri: yeah it is.....

Russ: because I was planning on looking back at the past and seeing, well okay let's....

Kiri: no, that would make it too easy.

Skip: yeah because we'd have known exactly where to set it up in the past.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: because of what flourished.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: okay but if we're setting it up now and all the cities are gone.....

Russ: yeah, what didn't flourish?

Skip: and everything's bare where the cities were......

Russ: Virginia City used to be a city of 10,000 souls.

Skip: I realize that but that was a mining town too.

Russ: right.

Skip: so was Butte Montana, they had over a 100,000 people in it at one time but it was a mining town and nothing would grow there. Did you know that?

Russ: uh-uh.

Skip: on account of the mine waste and the stuff that was dumped out on the ground.

Kiri: that's something else you have to take into consideration.

Skip: I'm sorry?

Kiri: that's something else you have to take into.....

Russ: now are we dealing.....

Skip: now we know.

Russ: now are we dealing with pollution that's there in the area?

Skip: that's right, dealing with pollution and yet not the buildings and stuff that put it there.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: okay.

Skip: okay. That changes.....

Russ: that means you can't put it in any current, civilized place due to the fact that the pollution there would probably kill any plants you're trying to grow or leave your residual stuff that would cause birth defects in the future.

Skip: well not only that but your pollution like you say would be so great that nothing would grow there anyhow.

Russ: right.

Skip: and don't try to use the Los Angeles Valley.

Russ: oh no, that's gone.

Skip: because that is called the valley of smoke even back before a city was there.

Kiri: you see, it's not as easy as you thought it was going to be.

Russ: no I just had to know what the rules were before I start thinking about it seriously.

Kiri: well I do have e-mail Russ.

Russ: well I know darling but I don't want to bother you when you're busy, I know how busy you get.

Kiri: yeah, I do actually. Talking of busy, can we somehow lighten her load?

Skip: who?

Kiri: Karra's.

Russ: that's not till after the delegates go through.

Kiri: yeah I know.

Russ: the dignitaries. Until then she's got responsibilities that she can't break away from.

Skip: yeah that's true too, she's got commitments.

Russ: and she knows that and I know that but there's nothing that can be done.

Skip: that's why I backed off and just told her to relax.

Kiri: yeah she looks very, very tired.

Skip: okay.

Kiri: I offered the guestroom for her to sleep in as long as she wants. I know she'll only sleep for a couple of hours and then go back to her residence and work some more.

Skip: yeah.

Kiri: how much time have do we have left on the recording?

Skip: oh I have no idea, Russ will have to take a look at that.

Russ: oh about five minutes.

Kiri: okay we can burn through that....we can chat idly.

Russ: actually eight minutes and 30 seconds.

Skip: you ornry thing. Oh no.

Kiri: you timing again?

Russ: no, just took a look at the tape though.

Kiri: uh-huh, okay. You think you're that good?

Russ: no but I'm just past experience. I've been doing this for how many years I've been doing this? Seen so many tapes going through right now, you can get it down to a point where you can figure this all out.

Kiri: uh-huh. I don't even bother looking at the chronometer, it's just sort of like.....we'll talk until it's done. But okay, so the project is to find a spot that can be colonized on your planet in the current time that it's at with all the problems that.....

Skip: and 10,000 people.

Kiri: 10,000 people

Skip: alright.

Russ: now what kind of technologies does this 10,000 people have when they get here? Nomadic, civilized.

Skip: oh yeah okay, yeah.

Kiri: how are they getting to your planet?

Skip: they're getting here by spaceship.

Russ: oh well there's the question, if they're getting here by spaceship then, they've got high-technology tools to terraform the area they're in right?

Skip: so it's possible they've got good technology.....right, right. They have high-technology.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: so we're talking terraforming.

Skip: yeah but they'd still have to use a certain amount of hand tools too.

Russ: maybe, we don't know.

Kiri: okay.

Russ: well what if it was a bunch of Sirians coming down right now?

Skip: a bunch of what?

Russ: Sirians. Let's say 10,000 Sirians came down and set up a colony right now. Good God, they have enough stuff they'd never have to go near a city.

Skip: I thought we was talking about human beings.

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: yeah we are but, Sirians are pretty close.

(Skip chuckles)

Kiri: genetically yes......

Skip: no cigar.

Kiri: genetically........no I don't like cigars, the kind of make me itch afterwards.

(joking about the Bill Clinton incident)

Russ: see they would have technology, they would need to be in a city. They could just....

Skip: yeah that's true.

Kiri: ahh you want to bet? When we do or when we did the colonizing in the past, we didn't bring all our high-tech technology because it's bulky, cumbersome and takes up valuable space that is used for other things.

Skip: that's true too.

Kiri: and why take quantities of material such as lumber, ceramics when that's going to be available there anyway?

Skip: oh yeah it's all here.

Russ: ships could be broken down into very usable parts.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: it's all here, you don't have to.....

Russ: you have to figure that there's going to be ships they could break down.

Kiri: well why break down a ship if that's going to be........if something goes wrong on the colony or something happens and you find that the world is unsuitable because of seismic activity, you've broken down your lifeboat to escape?

Skip: yeah.

Russ: hmmm.

Skip: yeah you don't take your ship apart.

Kiri: uh-huh. And, if you land your ship on the planet and start dismantling it, where are the people going to sleep whilst you're dismantling it?

Russ: well you can always......yeah that's true.

Skip: yeah.

Kiri: okay, where you can put them if they become sick? How are you going to feed them if you dismantle where your hydroponic chambers are? How are you going to......but to think that if you're an advanced technology and you're colonizing a planet, what would be on board your ship? How big would your ship be? Big enough to have some.....

Skip: pretty good size. Yeah, it'd have to be a good size.

Russ: they would have multiple ships, at least three like the.....

Kiri: uh-huh.

Skip: no, not really.

Russ: you could have one for just carrying supplies, one for carrying the people, one for carrying the rest of the......

Skip: uh-uh, no you've already said that your technology is already advanced, you don't have to carry supplies other than....the supplies that you would only need would be tools.

Russ: no you need things for defense, things for hunting, offense, things for....

Skip: well yeah that's.....you come back down to tools again.

Russ: sure.

Skip: because if you have the tools, you can make anything.

Russ: hmm.

Kiri: okay, here's a little suggestion. You two decide on what technology level you're at. Okay, let's make it a little......let's give you two months and you're going to plan the total trip, manifest, location, don't forget, it's 20th century Earth, no inhabitants on there but as is now.

Russ: yeah you have to scouted it out.

Kiri: yeah you're going to have the whole entire ship's manifest, categories of people doing what, everything that you're going to need to colonize a planet plus the location. I'll give you two months to do that. Or we can do the other one where you just find the location that you're going to be colonizing that has all the suitable requirements. Which are you guys want to do?

Russ: I will do the second one......the two-month thing, I like the challenge.

Kiri: okay Skip?

Skip: yeah.

Kiri: okay.

Skip: I'll go for it.

Kiri: okay you've got two months to come up with a full......

Russ: now how much are we talking, how much capacity has the ship got to hold, did we decide that?

Kiri: it's your ship.

Russ: I can make a pretty, big damn ship.

Skip: well.

Russ: I don't know what the laws of physics are for bigger ships.

Skip: no, the laws of physics don't count because technology's ahead of it. Now there's been some of course Hollywood style okay? Where there's been 2 million people on a ship.

Russ: yeah?

Skip: two and a half million in fact. In "The Visitors", they had....

Russ: 10,000 people could get lost in a ship that size.

Skip: sure you would but "The Visitors", they had over 30,000 people on one ship.

Skip: the new one had 1,800 on it just as crew.

Russ: hmmm.

Kiri: and only one bathroom.

(Skip laughs)

Skip: everybody carried Porta Potty's.

(more laughter)

Skip: no, yeah.

Kiri: uh-huh, you gotta think.

Skip: two months puts us at 1rst of September right?

Russ: now is this.......are we talking.....are we talking hydro..I mean are we cryogenically freezing people, putting them in suspended animation during the trip?

Kiri: that's up to you.

Russ: I mean are they living and breathing during the trip?

Skip: that would have to be your choice.

Russ: so it have to be their ancestors getting here?

Kiri: that's up to you.

Skip: be your choice.

Russ: well I mean the crew would have to....

Skip: now okay, now one other question I need to ask you. How long are we going to be in space?

Kiri: got to work with the laws of physics.

Russ: which are? We don't know the laws of physics in space.

Kiri: then you've got to find out.

Russ: we don't have that information really, not for something that big a project.

Kiri: let's say it's a five year trip.

Skip: five year trip?

Russ: five year trip.

Skip: that's fair enough.

Kiri: okay, five year trip.

Skip: okay.

Russ: I can work with that.

Skip: five years okay and you've got 10,000 people, all right, gives me what I need to know.

Russ: hmm.

Kiri: so that will give you guys something to think about.

Skip: first of September you want a report.

Kiri: correct.

Russ: okay.

Kiri: before things start to get hectic around the apartment.

Russ: okay, very cool.