Ego and hubris matter as much in physics as anything else. The contention here I think is missing the possibility of a breakthrough or two. We are making 'ste

Ego and hubris matter as much in physics as anything else. The contention here I think is missing the possibility of a breakthrough or two. We are making 'step functions' now and again in a lot of things, it's not entirely infeasible that a couple of step functions makes space just a lot easier. Maybe in superconducting or power generation or wireless energy transfer. Maybe if energy is super cheap and light, we really can haul a couple of orders of magnitudes more mass up into space, the 'close system' of keeping humans alive equation shifts enough to where it becomes much more feasible.