cedarford:

You’re right. The cost of getting space resources down here is unacceptable and the carrying capacity of Earth for humans is maybe two billion. And both points illustrate a classic failure of those who try to predict the future – a failure of imagination.

Leave the stuff at the top of the well, where the sun shines 24/7/52. And soon enough the people will follow, and maybe your grandchild will be one of the first to walk the snows of Enceladus or take snaps of Jupiter from the surface of Ganymede. And the human race will have more than one basket to put its priceless eggs in.

Many things could end civilisation, and some of them could end us; Yellowstone letting rip, a major comet strike, Cumbre Vieja blowing its top and a large chunk sliding into the sea (and putting the east coast of the USA under 300 metres of water), catastrophic global warming, the next ice age, a major coronal mass ejection destroying most of our tech base – and of course some lunatic pushing the Button. I’ve probably missed some.

Get out there, en masse, and we are safe, and nothing can dislodge us all.

“The Earth is the cradle of mankind; but one cannot stay in the cradle forever.”