4 ms·
If you go to all the trouble to get out of one gravity well, what's the point of anchoring yourself?
by Simon_says 9y ago
If you go to all the trouble to get out of one gravity well, what's the point of anchoring yourself?
- macintux 9y agoSome of us are fond of the conveniences of a gravity well.
- stcredzero 9y agoEscaping radiation? Scenery? Proximity to lots of other people? There's a good chance that the barrier of a gravity well is going to go the way of the barrier of mountainous terrain. Also, exchanging the fixed geography of land for the fluid geography of fluid might result in changes to the underlying nature of society. In hunter gatherer days, dissenters could simply walk to a different part of the environment. Farmer's fields and defensive walls anchored people to particular pieces of land. If everyone lived in mobile floating habitats, everyone would be free to move. This is quite likely to change the nature of government. You also get this in a Dyson Swarm, but there's a matter of scale. A minimum viable space colony is likely to be larger and more expensive than a minimum viable floating Venusian compound.