Habitat Population Control

> From: Al Globus [mailto:aglobus@...]

> A quick calculation shows that the materials in Ceres is about enough
> for space colonies with a total 1g surface area about 160x the surface
> area of Earth. It's going to be a long time before we fill up this
> solar system. By then, I'm quite sure we'll find a way to get to the
> nearest star. There are about 100 billion stars in this galaxy (I
> think). Population control, once we can build orbital space colonies,
> is going to be the least of our problems for a very long time.

More to the point by then we'll be able to disassemble hydrogen and helium into protons, neutrons and electrons, and then reassemble them into whatever we want. Once that happens the building material in the solar system increases by several *dozens* of orders of magnatude! Ringworld anyone?

BUT...

The longer we go on increasing our population at a blind run the harder it'll be to stop. Also in the event of catistrophic collapse colonies might had to fend for themselves without any outside assistance. If a catistrophy on Earth suddenly meant they had to fend for themselves, and couldn't afford the luxuary of building other colonies, they'd have to maintain a stable population.

ANTIcarrot.