(Thoughts after reading Alfvén and Alfvén on the argument for Space Colonies)
The Smokescreen of Our Wealth
Politics, not genetics, will be the end of our species. As the gap widens between rich and poor, quiet and large leaps backwards sociologically will mock our great steps forward in science. Competence clouds our ignorance of ourselves. Stability, marked progression, will come with the tainted under-the-desk movements of major market players. Charities will feed on the aid given to undeveloped countries as the great answer to mediocrity, but they can't see the quagmire as it is: short term relief delays long range solutions.
The overwhelming numbers projected for 2050 hold us in charge of our fate as humanity's density in critical countries mounts. Decentralize the world's population into space and we will have better control of its collective damage to the environment. Technical communities, scientific outposts, research facilities; all play important roles in shaping humanity's space colonies. There was a call in the 1970's by some of our most talented and bright physicists to colonize space. Their timeframes included practical drawbacks, like war, and still they projected we'd be on the Moon and Mars by 1990. That we have involved ourselves so often in war could be the unforeseen tax.
Some thoughts on waste management:
Nothing that goes into space can remain in space (we've already screwed that pooch)
Nothing from space should return to earth, especially waste from production or facilities in space (we're coming close to screwing this pooch)
The Tax On our Finite Resources
What we've begun toying with on Earth isn't sociology, and it isn't genetics. We've taken this planet, as a whole, as our own. We've created a system of organized exploitation that has begun chemically changing the biosphere. Because we are very good at utilizing the entirety of our resources, we tend to ignore the value of their finite origins. As a distracted species, we have begun toying with the physical space we inhabit. That, in turn, has begun toying with our genetics and blatantly, the gap between the rich and the poor. The great problems that face us today have to do with the biosphere and its unpredictable future with so many populating its surface. Move the populations and the surface is less taxed.
The Individual
Spiraling into the depths of ignorance, the individual will find solace in the most meager distractions and their quality of life will be valued by its silence. The denser the population, the more instabilities will arise from the silent majority. The quality of life for the individual will improve with generational management. It's not a one-child system that would make sense. Rather, the system should be education. The better (not more) educated the individual, the better equipped to know if regeneration is within their means.