Super-habitats

On Sep 05, 2006, at 21:48 UTC, Robert wrote:

> here's the thing. All of these are so big that it would take
> centuries to build before you could hope to have someone live in
> them. why would anyone want to spend so much time building something
> like this when they would not live to see a fraction of its
> construction.

When we're talking about projects starting more than a century from
now, it seems very likely that people will live much longer than they
do now. Projects taking a few centuries are not unreasonable to people
who live for millenia.

> even a structure 50 miles long and many mile wide would
> require decades of building with no return on it before its
> completed.

Also, I don't think we can speak with such assurance about how long it
will take to build things in the future. A very large structure can be
built quickly if lots of identical construction units are used. For
example, if the unit is 5 miles wide, that's only 250 square miles.
Assume you have 250 construction (robot) teams; each one only has to
build one square mile. Would that really take them decades? It seems
unlikely.

Of course if you're talking about things we might build in the next few
decades, then I agree with you completely. We'll certainly start small
and work our way up. But it's fun (if somewhat futile) now and then to
try and picture what life might be like centuries from now.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...