This book tells a tragic story about how the bomb created a leap of mankind into space, but positively how the Internet permits viable commerce that supported the space colonies. It was written in April 1994, updated for readability in 2001, and has been on the web since 1995. Thousands of people have read it. The statistics suggest that if you read the first 20 or 30 pages, you will likely finish it:

Copyright (C) 1995-2070, Robert Thibadeau, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The free text is provided for individual reading, one HTML page served by the www.metafire.com web-server at a time, on a World Wide Web browser. You may also buy a printable copy of the eBook for personal use. The author doesn't want trees killed unnecessarily. Please respect his desire. If you need to see why, go to Greece, Easter Island, or drive from Seattle to Mt. Ranier. No other use, including public display or named-file or named-object download for permanent storage, is permitted without written approval of the author/owner.

Internet: rht@cs.cmu.edu

81,000 Words