Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!burl!duke!unc!tim From: tim@unc.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: James Hogan Message-ID: <5565@unc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 15-Jul-83 14:55:28 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.5565 Posted: Fri Jul 15 14:55:28 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 19-Jul-83 13:21:33 EDT References: sri-arpa.3022 Lines: 26 I won't comment on the two problems with Hogan's Ganymede trilogy that were mentioned (for one thing, the person accused Hogan of pseudo-science and then asked if a closed temporal loop was the time equivalent of a black hole), but I did have one big problem with the second book. This is a bit of a spoiler, but I can't change the subject line of a followup, so no flames please. (SPOILER) The ship was out for 25,000,000 years, correct? That's a pretty long time. Isn't it amazing that they came out of their "suspension" within a decade after the first few traces of their civilization were turned up by a human. (It might have been two decades.) That's something like 1,250,000 to 1 against, using the figure of 20 years. Even if you say that they would have come out at some point between 22,000,000 and 28,000,000, the odds are 150,000 to 1 against that twenty-year span. ______________________________________ The overworked keyboard of Tim Maroney duke!unc!tim (USENET) tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill