5 ms·

Given the cost of every square foot of living space in a space habitat I imagine the conditions would be closer to that of a nuclear submarine than a oil rig.

joaorj 11y ago
If that were the case their society would soon collapse after a few years. The cost of every square foot of living space in x years is something we can't have the smallest idea about.
tinco 11y ago
The cost of living space in space is high now only because we have to propel it into space from our big gravity well. As soon as we start mining on for example the moon we will definitely see an exponential drop.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  The earth has a wide variety of resources important to comfortable human life. The moon has rocks and sand and sunshine. Moon mining is but one of the prerequisites to living cheaply in space.
  - marcosdumay 11y ago
    Yes. We'll probably move into space only after we are good into autonomously turning water, organics and some rocks into comfortable habitat. Not earlier. That is probably not too far away. We are getting very good into semi-autonomous transformations, and at turning anything into the materials we want.
    - jessaustin 11y ago
      If this were true, one would expect life on earth to differ dramatically from what one observes today. A lack of necessary materials keeps billions of people in poverty.
- saulrh 11y ago
  Also because we're propelling it into space using disintegrating totem poles. Lofting it using something like a momentum exchange tether, launch loop, or space fountain would also make habitats of that scale much cheaper. Better materials science could also significantly reduce the necessary lift mass; inflatable shelters, for example, scale really well as they get bigger.
- Retra 11y ago
  Just because you can bootstrap a computer to run arbitrary programs doesn't mean you're significantly closer to general AI. Similarly, it's easy to argue that there will be incremental improvements in space technology, but it's very hard to argue that they will snowball into large-scale luxury platforms that can sustain human life indefinitely.
  - simonh 11y ago
    On the contrary it's very easy to argue it. All you have to do is type some words on a keyboard. Actually doing it however...

joaorj 11y ago

If that were the case their society would soon collapse after a few years. The cost of every square foot of living space in x years is something we can't have the smallest idea about.

tinco 11y ago

The cost of living space in space is high now only because we have to propel it into space from our big gravity well. As soon as we start mining on for example the moon we will definitely see an exponential drop.

jessaustin 11y ago
The earth has a wide variety of resources important to comfortable human life. The moon has rocks and sand and sunshine. Moon mining is but one of the prerequisites to living cheaply in space.
- marcosdumay 11y ago
  Yes. We'll probably move into space only after we are good into autonomously turning water, organics and some rocks into comfortable habitat. Not earlier. That is probably not too far away. We are getting very good into semi-autonomous transformations, and at turning anything into the materials we want.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    If this were true, one would expect life on earth to differ dramatically from what one observes today. A lack of necessary materials keeps billions of people in poverty.
saulrh 11y ago
Also because we're propelling it into space using disintegrating totem poles. Lofting it using something like a momentum exchange tether, launch loop, or space fountain would also make habitats of that scale much cheaper. Better materials science could also significantly reduce the necessary lift mass; inflatable shelters, for example, scale really well as they get bigger.
Retra 11y ago
Just because you can bootstrap a computer to run arbitrary programs doesn't mean you're significantly closer to general AI. Similarly, it's easy to argue that there will be incremental improvements in space technology, but it's very hard to argue that they will snowball into large-scale luxury platforms that can sustain human life indefinitely.
- simonh 11y ago
  On the contrary it's very easy to argue it. All you have to do is type some words on a keyboard. Actually doing it however...