I'm with you 100%. I think Stross is just going for laughs. 2031 is way too soon for much of this, when you consider where we were in 2011 compared to today. Mu

I'm with you 100%. I think Stross is just going for laughs. 2031 is way too soon for much of this, when you consider where we were in 2011 compared to today. Musk may shoot his load to the Moon or Mars for twitter likes, but in terms of funding and feasibility, I don't think he'll have the same billions to play with in 10 years, and NASA needs a decade headstart. China and India seem unlikely to shoot for Mars since they are focused on the global production (China) or their own capital boom (India).