Space and planetary settlement.

From: Edith & Steve [mailto:esdesd@...]

My wife told me before humanity can really colonise space, or planets, it is
fundamental that it put its act together in cleaning up our environment, the
whole Earth. I agree totally. We need to recycle 100 percent before we can
consider colonisation.

Well, look at it this way. Things seldom happen unless there's an economic
motivation. Here on Earth, there's little incentive to recycle because raw
materials are relatively plentiful and cheap, and power is expensive. In an
orbital space settlement, the very opposite will be true. The economic
motivation will then be to push as close towards 100% recycling as possible.
Thus it's possible that the orbital settlements will develop new recycling
methods, and vastly improve existing ones. Perhaps past a certain point,
they will be able to teach Earth a thing or two about recycling, much to
Earth's benefit.

Unfortunately, when I see articles or websites promoting the benifits of
colonisation, and there are, I don't see any social planning nor
spirituality which are a must.

Those are separate topics. It would be intellectually dishonest of us to
say that some of the benefits of space settlement is that it will make us
more socially responsible, or enhance us spiritually.

But on the other hand, many small, totally independent human communities in
space may provide ideal social experimentation laboratories. And we may all
benefit from many such experiments taking place in new and better ways to
live.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From:
Edith & Steve [mailto:esdesd@...]
My wife told me before humanity can really colonise space, or planets, it is fundamental that it put its act together in cleaning up our environment, the whole Earth. I agree totally. We need to recycle 100 percent before we can consider colonisation.

Well, look at it this way. Things seldom happen unless there's an economic motivation. Here on Earth, there's little incentive to recycle because raw materials are relatively plentiful and cheap, and power is expensive. In an orbital space settlement, the very opposite will be true. The economic motivation will then be to push as close towards 100% recycling as possible. Thus it's possible that the orbital settlements will develop new recycling methods, and vastly improve existing ones. Perhaps past a certain point, they will be able to teach Earth a thing or two about recycling, much to Earth's benefit.
Unfortunately, when I see articles or websites promoting the benifits of colonisation, and there are, I don't see any social planning nor spirituality which are a must.

Those are separate topics. It would be intellectually dishonest of us to say that some of the benefits of space settlement is that it will make us more socially responsible, or enhance us spiritually.

But on the other hand, many small, totally independent human communities in space may provide ideal social experimentation laboratories. And we may all benefit from many such experiments taking place in new and better ways to live.

Regards,
Mike Combs