I haven't chimed in all that much, because I find this to be a more or less pointless discussion. Here's why:
1. We will never, EVER colonize other planets. It has been nearly a half-century since human beings landed on the moon. If the political and public will was there, Luna City would be a going concern and the Goddard Colonies on Mars would be working towards self sufficiency.
2. We aren't going to build planets or Dyson spheres/swarms or ringworlds. The resources and money simply don't exist for projects of this magnitude. The ISS cost something in the neighbourhood of $150 billion US, and the most people it can sustain at one time is about a dozen. Doing a rough straight-line extrapolation (clumsy, I know), building something in space to sustain just 1000 people would cost twelve thousand trillion dollars. Building something to house any appreciable fraction of humanity would cost a number of dollars so big that it doesn't mean anything.
3. For much the same reason as #2 (coupled with what are very likely insurmountable technical difficulties), we aren't leaving this solar system.
There is only one piece of worthwhile real estate available to us as a species, and we happen to be standing on it.
Boru
1. We will never, EVER colonize other planets. It has been nearly a half-century since human beings landed on the moon. If the political and public will was there, Luna City would be a going concern and the Goddard Colonies on Mars would be working towards self sufficiency.
2. We aren't going to build planets or Dyson spheres/swarms or ringworlds. The resources and money simply don't exist for projects of this magnitude. The ISS cost something in the neighbourhood of $150 billion US, and the most people it can sustain at one time is about a dozen. Doing a rough straight-line extrapolation (clumsy, I know), building something in space to sustain just 1000 people would cost twelve thousand trillion dollars. Building something to house any appreciable fraction of humanity would cost a number of dollars so big that it doesn't mean anything.
3. For much the same reason as #2 (coupled with what are very likely insurmountable technical difficulties), we aren't leaving this solar system.
There is only one piece of worthwhile real estate available to us as a species, and we happen to be standing on it.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
