Terraforming the Solar System

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Yup, and even space habiats are a bit goofy if we go beyond a certain size. There's really no reason to build gigantic cities in space.

The emboldened statement is semantically meaningless.

Reasons change with time and people, and are infinitely malleable. Economics is semi-malleable, because it depends on both reasons and on the limits of technology and resources.

There was no reason for England to settle New England, and the resources necessary to build a canoe big enough to engage in such a settlment effort would be beyond the largest imaginable tribe. What? England was no longer a tribal society and the definition of 'economic' and 'reason' had changed? Oh.

Robot factories? Yes. Huge cities? Why? Just build the huge city on Earth. That's much cheaper. We are very far from running out of open space.

Irrelevant. Colonizaton is not driven by running out of space. It was not in the 17th century, to my knowledge it never has been. Now, it's sometimes been driven by groups not having access to the space that exists, but that's a different thing.