Love Chris and love his writing and commentary, but this isn't even a topic up for debate. We aren't colonizing Mars or other planets, or indulging in space travel, or mining asteroids, or even going back to the moon (if we even made it there in the first place). We haven't put a person outside of low-Earth orbit for >50 years. The space age is already over. Energy and resource limits y'all. The age of small farming agroecology is upon us, make ready yourselves...
In our lifetimes you are almost certainly right. But thinking long term the possibility (definitely not inevitability, of course) must be thought about lest we leave future generations adrift if things surprise us. More than a generation before coal or oil or nuclear power changed the amount of energy people can harvest they would have been unthinkable outside of fiction. Lots of interesting work being done pursuing fusion power right now. Maybe it goes nowhere but it seems interesting. And just as logistical capacity can decline, as it is doing now, so too does it rise back as circumstances change.
Would I bet money on a future in the stars outside of asteroid mining? Probably not. But I also wouldnt bet against it in the long term.
Love Chris and love his writing and commentary, but this isn't even a topic up for debate. We aren't colonizing Mars or other planets, or indulging in space travel, or mining asteroids, or even going back to the moon (if we even made it there in the first place). We haven't put a person outside of low-Earth orbit for >50 years. The space age is already over. Energy and resource limits y'all. The age of small farming agroecology is upon us, make ready yourselves...
In our lifetimes you are almost certainly right. But thinking long term the possibility (definitely not inevitability, of course) must be thought about lest we leave future generations adrift if things surprise us. More than a generation before coal or oil or nuclear power changed the amount of energy people can harvest they would have been unthinkable outside of fiction. Lots of interesting work being done pursuing fusion power right now. Maybe it goes nowhere but it seems interesting. And just as logistical capacity can decline, as it is doing now, so too does it rise back as circumstances change.
Would I bet money on a future in the stars outside of asteroid mining? Probably not. But I also wouldnt bet against it in the long term.
I would bet against seeing it my lifetime though.