space habitats

Well, such small groups has never happened in recorded history. That
question can not be answered in a positive. In pre history even when there were
small groups of any of the five so far identified hominoid species the
first time they got to interface with any other group of their species or
even another species they joined forces. In recorded history status quo has
never been tried to my knowledge.

Now to directly answer your question,

>>Could space enthusiasts bring a different perspective to every day
living, which is more rewarding and ecologically more sane? <<

Yes, for a short period of time. Maybe for 200 years. Or if they were so
secluded, with no contact with any out side source of people or resources
and they had no other recourse. You can study some of the small islands in
the Pacific where small groups were essentially cut off from everything else
except the sea. The minute that they had new resources or new people not
born into the group, all that would go out the window. You can not progress
without making a mess. Even if you constantly cleaned the mess up, there
would always be something that was missed and eventually would only be done by
threatening the use of force. In an orbital habitat even with a population
of 1000 to 30,000 it would be hard to accomplish. It would be impossible
on a planetary surface for any length of time.

I could write you a book on that, but I will leave you with this. In our
history there were groups of people who walled themselves up in compounds to
make copies of the writings of people of history. For the most part all
their requirements were taken care of by people out side the walls. Their only
jobs were to faithfully translate and transcribe those works so that
others could read them. In the thousand or so years of such service there was
not one work that anyone has found that was exactly true to the original.
Fortunately, for us, many of the originals remain, but one can not find any
two people who can translate them and transcribe them exactly the same.

So again to get back to your original question -

"Could space enthusiasts bring a different perspective to every day
living, which is more rewarding and ecologically more sane?"

the real answer is NO! Humans are a great race but they are human.

John Wayne Smith

In a message dated 6/10/2013 10:54:39 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
sraj99@... writes:

Well, let's delete the term 'utopia', the rest of the question remains to
be answered :-)

Regards,
Selvaraj

On 11 June 2013 01:28, wrote:

> **
>
> I agree with Mike for the most part but would phrase it in a different
> manner.
> A utopia of anyone's conception would be the end of Man Kind. I have
never
> found any two people who's idea of utopia match.
>
> Frankly I want the challenges. I want to have to work hard and even be
> defeated occasionally. This is what makes man and a man. The challenge of
> life as a whole and individually is the necessity of doing.
>
> Nothing that we do off Earth will be remotely like what we experience on
> Earth.
>
> I have looked at smaller groups of people and how they would live and
> expand. As small as 100 people. I have found very few examples on Earth
> that
> could compare. They all had an escape valve or some out side source of
> replenishment or they died. There have been some that we could learn from
> but
> they had it even better than we would off Earth. Even a world identical
to
> Earth.
>
> Mankind can live and thrive off Earth However I do not believe that any
> "utopian" plan could survive for more than 5 generations.
>
> In a message dated 6/10/2013 9:37:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> mikecombs@... writes:
>
> I advise anyone against visions of creating utopias in space. I think
> settling space is worthwhile (even vital), but one should never promise
> anything other than perhaps an increase in the standard of living (which
> after
> all has grown by leaps and bounds historically with each new technical
> advancement), and just maybe a chance to build your own kind of society
> with
> somewhat less interference than might be the case on Earth. People living
> in
> space will have all of the same faults as Earth people, and nothing will
> ever be paradise. Pursuing utopia is pointless to my mind; it's enough to
> just work toward improvements in living standard.
>
> I don't know about 100 people, but if you care to make it 10,000, I would
> say the NASA-Ames Summer Study came as close as anything to what you ask
> for.
>
> I have heard the opinion that the people living on Earth might adopt some
> of the recycling technologies for ethical reasons which the orbital
people
> must develop for reasons of economic necessity. Of course, a
> counter-argument there is that the people in orbit will have access to
> much greater amounts of low-cost energy than the planet-bound. Some
procedures
> economical for them (like supercritical combustion chambers) might not
be for
> Earthlings.
>
> Regards,
> Mike Combs
>
> From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mail
> to:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of sraj
> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 8:15 AM
> To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [spacesettlers] : Space habitats
>
> What troubles me greatly is the glaring contradiction between our desire
to
> create an utopia in space, against our inability to create a similar
utopia
> on Planet Earth, where all conditions are more favourable than they are
> likely to be in space.
>
> Has any science fiction writer tried to visualize in detail how a colony
of