Introduction

From: "Combs, Mike"
To:
Sent: Quarta-feira, 15 de Novembro de 2000 12:21
Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] Introduction

> Yes, as big a fan of space settlement as I am, I'd say that Earthly
> solutions to Earthly problems must be found. We couldn't ship people up
> rapidly enough to even keep up with current population increases, and
moving
> industries into space solely in order to get their pollution off the Earth
> is insufficient justification. The fact that space settlers won't have to
> worry about controlling their population growth or polluting Earth will be
> significant fringe benefits for themselves, but won't really help anyone
> back home.
>

A minor point: space settlers will not have to worry about population
control *for a while*. However, population growth is exponential, while
expansion through a three-dimensional space is only cubic (in a rough
approximation considering very long distances/timescales). Therefore, at
some point expansion through space will not be enough to sustain an
uncontrolled population growth. Of course that will probably happen in a
very, very distant future; I would guess that the usable resources of the
Solar System alone will last for countless millennia...

> I'd say that space settlement is more about providing additional options
> than solutions. The only thing it really "solves" is our current total
lack
> of a frontier. But that to me is a major thing, and may have a lot to do
> with the future health and vigor of human civilization.
>

Agreed. Indeed, I think that human civilization is converging to a
remarkable degree of uniformity - and boredom - thanks to the fact that we
live in a single world fully connected at the speed of the light. That is a
very unusual situation for our civilization: during millennia, there were in
fact people living in several different "worlds", for Earth was simply too
big for the transportation and communication systems available. Space
colonization will provide a way for Humanity to return to that state - and
to the astonishing diversity of cultures and ways of thinking that is slowly
(or not-so-slowly) vanishing nowadays.

> millennia,
>

Regards,

> Mike Combs

Lucio Coelho