The upshot of this is that we are entering an age that is as technologically different from before as WWI is from the Napoleonic Wars. The military is only the combat expression of a very different technological society.

The tools developed today will be part of the tool kit for the great space age to come. Space ships will need to be able to precisely locate mineral deposits without a lot of exploratory mining. Then they’ll need to be able to fabricate parts on the fly as needed.

Starting in the 1960′s the philosophy was as of a world with natural resource limits. This was the philosophy behind limiting population growth.

But really what it was about was that the technology of the age had stopped providing opportunities for exponential growth (while still providing opportunities for arithmetic growth).

We are entering a period once again where vast technological improvements create new opportunities for exponential growth.

But of course the burst of power will create new elites and many opportunities for mischief.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.