Population

I did this calculation. I based it on the amount of material that
could be easily mined and converted into colonies. The number was
about 10^19.

Even if I was over optimistic by 3 orders of magnitude the number is
obscenely high.

Bill

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Josh Kane wrote:
> Hi. My name is Josh. I am very interested in the idea of space
> settlement, because I believe that it is the only way we can ensure
the
> survival of our species.
> To start off, I have a question: There is only a limited amount of
space
> in our solar system. Therefore, there is a limit to the number of
people
> who can live in it. By the time we reach that number, the technology
to
> extend life to hundreds or even thousands of years will probably
exist.
> (Though some say that we need to die, people want to live as long as
> possible.) So people will face a hard choice: Require people to die
at
> age x (think of the movie Logan's Run), or greatly limit the number
of
> children born so that they replace the few deaths that occur. On
Earth,
> this problem exists on a smaller scale (since our life expectancy is
> around 80 years), and we have solved it by lowering our fertility
rate
> (2.0 in the US, and 1.4 in Europe and Japan).
> But it's not as simple as that. In space, we will be able to get
around
> this problem by starting new colonies when the existing ones fill
up. So
> the people who stay in the colonies that are full won't be very
> interested in having kids. This will select for people who really
want
> kids each time a new colony is started. When the solar system is
full,
> it will be a much harder choice for them. Most likely, they won't be
> able to live in a world with very few kids (less than 1% of the
> population), but if they choose to die, then they won't be able to
live