Re: Final destinations in space

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:12:47 GMT, Monte Davis
<monte.davis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>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."

Some nations have longer planning horizons than others.

>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."

Uh, it happened, just over 60 years ago.

Anyway, it's not so much a question of technology as investment in
infrastructure. Consider the Vikings reaching North America. Their
technology was not really superior, in fact it was in many ways
inferior to contemporaneous Chinese naval technology. But if they had
had the vision to make the necessary investment in infrastructure,
they could have established permanent settlements in North America,
with incalculable consequences for the world. Likewise with the
Chinese after the Cheng Ho expeditions.

-- Roy L
.

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