heaven

Madame Cynthia, what does Signore Dante say in Paradisio? Lainey, you may be on to something. I do remember a short story by Azimov. He described orbital colonies that created artificial gravity by centrifugal force (i.e. keep the colony rotating at a certain speed, and you have normal gravity on the edge. However, in the middle of the colony, where the spin would have little effect, you would be weightless.) Since lack of gravity creates a need for exercise to remain healthy, the colonial administration tried to encourage the colonists to take up "flying" in the low gravity center of the structure. Problem was that learning the fly with the equipment provided was difficult, required superior coordination and athleticism, and was generally unpopular. So they brought in a fashion designer to come up with cooler looking equipment that would get people to want to do it. He looked at the problem from a different angle, and deduced that the problem was the paradigm of "flying." Turns out that trying to frolic in this atmosphere was a lot more like swimming underwater than flying in the air. He created costumes that vaguely resembled a dolphin, and allowed one to more effectively move through the air as a fluid medium--like water. Voila, an easier, more intuitive means of locomotion that was a lot more fun. Anyone recall the name of the story? Matt

Madame Cynthia, what does Signore Dante say in Paradisio? Lainey, you may be on to something. I do remember a short story by Azimov. He described orbital colonies that created artificial gravity by centrifugal force (i.e. keep the colony rotating at a certain speed, and you have normal gravity on the edge. However, in the middle of the colony, where the spin would have little effect, you would be weightless.) Since lack of gravity creates a need for exercise to remain healthy, the colonial administration tried to encourage the colonists to take up "flying" in the low gravity center of the structure. Problem was that learning the fly with the equipment provided was difficult, required superior coordination and athleticism, and was generally unpopular. So they brought in a fashion designer to come up with cooler looking equipment that would get people to want to do it. He looked at the problem from a different angle, and deduced that the problem was the paradigm of "flying." Turns out that trying to frolic in this atmosphere was a lot more like swimming underwater than flying in the air. He created costumes that vaguely resembled a dolphin, and allowed one to more effectively move through the air as a fluid medium--like water. Voila, an easier, more intuitive means of locomotion that was a lot more fun. Anyone recall the name of the story? Matt