X-Message-Number: 22715
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 08:18:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Randall Burns <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #22708 - #22711

Phillip Rhoades wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
People banking on future technology to produce more
food and other technologies to move people to
space/Mars to solve population problems  
are dreaming if they think these are short-term
solutions.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I don't think space is a short-term solution at this
point. The best immediate solution for
hunger/agricultural sprawl I've seen is farming the
ocean deserts(areas in the ocean with very little
biological activity). This is a technology that is
available virtually immediately. Space development
_could_ have been available now, but Western elites
lost their nerve(which means they obviously need
replacement). As it is now, if we are _lucky_, and we
get some appropriately motivated leadership the next
10-15 years, we might see some actual development of
space in 25-35 years. I'd expect it to be 40-50 years
before we see a space elevator or the equivalent.

Still I think space is important. Why? Because folks
need a hope for a future that is viable long term.
Once humanity gets off this rock, the resource base
expands dramatically. I would rather have world
leaders worried about their place in a history in
which the bulk of humanity is a space-faring
civilization than worried about their place in a
history in which humanity has reduced its numbers to
that which is sustainable on humanity's traditional
territories on earth. I suspect that the current
population on earth _will_ get reduced over time, the
question is will it just be a nasty battle or a
migration with someplace to go.


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