Boys and Girls in Space

--- In spacesettlers, "terrierkeeper" wrote:

> But I believe the Family Unit is still the best unit upon which
> Society will stand. And man will embrace its return when the great
> move comes.

Embrace its return from WHERE? People still live in families.

Really, we are debating things based on some assumptions which seem
to be at odds with observed reality. These assumptions are

a) nobody has babies anymore, when clearly obstetricians are still in
business, and

b) the family no longer exists, when in fact mommy daddy the kids and
a dog (or cat) is still the most common arraingment.

I also find it interesting that many of us assume that robots are or
soon will be capable of mining an asteroid, processing the ore, and
building a habitat with minimal human intervention, but that
household chores with the owner less than five metres aways is just
too much for anything short of human-level AI (which is assumed to be
impossible in the next half-millinnium or more).

I don't mean to be a contrarianist, but really.