> it is hard to come up with any economic benefit establishing such colonies provides to the home worlds. If medium human life were only 4 weeks, nobody would

> it is hard to come up with any economic benefit establishing such colonies provides to the home worlds. If medium human life were only 4 weeks, nobody would find funding for a 1 year colonization trip across a different continent. You wouldn't find a crew when it'd take one generation just to cross the atlantic once. I think it's similar here. With future (bio-)technological improvements, we might live for hundreds or thousands of years. Suddenly individuals would start thinking really long term... At one point every niche of the solar system will either be declared a national park/treasure, or mined, filled with real estate developments, etc. We'd run out of space and some rich folks would meet on one of the private moons of Jupiter (like how there are private islands today) to discuss a venture towards another star.