Human Behavior in Space

rehaulku@... wrote:

> I would like to discuss about philosophy and psychology of space
> settlements.

My philosophy of space settlements is carrot and stick.

The stick is that sooner or later human life on earth is
going to end.

Whether it is a (bioengineered?) disease, or a meteorite or
a nuclear war, ecological collapse or whatever, sooner
or later there's going to be a big problem. All species on
earth eventually die. It's inevitable.

The only chance for human survival is exponential population
growth. The only long term place for population to grow is
into space.
The carrot is that as pointed out by O'Neill technological
civilisation is actually easier and cheaper in space (in
the long run, in the short run the technology is harder and
as or more expensive.) Energy is quite plentiful (sunlight
24x7), material is far apart, but quite accessible, and
probably cheaper to separate than on earth due to the energy
supply.

Also, the other half of the carrot, big money is going to
be made in space. There's a lot of money there. (Actually
there's already a lot of money being made in space right
now.)