Re: Final destinations in space

royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

>I'm talking about a space-faring civilization, with thousands of
>people living there permanently.

OK, we're talking different time scales. The initial poster asked "Is
any such motivation in sight for off-world habitation by humans and
other species?" You're talking on a time scale of many decades at
least (absent unforeseeable basic-science breakthroughs); I was taking
"motivation" to mean "something that would shape a nation's spending
choices in 2006."

I must say, I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which one
"civilization" gets that kind of incommensurable technological lead
over "the obsolete nations of the earth." Let's see... Secretary of
the Admiralty (and Royal Society fellow) Samuel Pepys says, "Let's
fund that promising Isaac Newton, because his work will lead to
nuclear warheads and submarines that will put Admiral De Ruyter and
Louis XIV in their place."

.