Jed sez: >> They will write impassioned ballads of unfortunate ships flung out >> of the solar system.
> I think it is more likely they will dispatch a ship to repair or tow > the derelict ship back to the nearest port. You are, of course, correct. Alas, taking the romance out of exploiting another scary skify situation! ;-) > I recall an sci-fi story about a ship where they could not turn off > the motor, so no one could catch up. I cannot imagine any technology, > no matter how advanced, which does not include an ON/OFF switch > somewhere in the loop. I believe Kurt Vonnegut wrote about this very issue in one of his classic novels. I think it might have been "Sirens of Titan", but I'm a little shaky on that. In the middle of the story, there was a scene where engineers needed to build a space ship to transport a bunch of people emigrating to another planet. The transportation system would be totally automated. All the designated "pilot" had to do was push the green button and the spaceship's completely automated controls would do the rest. However, during the design phase there was considerable argument amongst the engineers over the fact that the "emigrants" would not feel comfortable boarding a spaceship that didn't at least give them the option of stopping it. After considerable discussion the engineers compromised. They installed a red "stop" button next to the green "go" button. However, beneath the control panel the red button wasn't connected to anything. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
