According to advocates, such as Princeton professor Gerard O'Neill, such commerce could then provide the economic foundation for the development of l… - Robert Zubrin

Perhaps the question was premature in Turner's time, but not now. Currently we see around us an ever more apparent loss of vigor of our society: increasing fixity of the power structure and bureaucratization of all levels of life; impotence of political institutions to carry off great projects; the proliferation of regulations affecting all aspects of public, private, and commercial life; the spread of irrationalism; the banalization of popular culture; the loss of willingness by individuals to take risks, to fend for themselves or think for themselves; economic stagnation and decline; the deceleration of the rate of technological innovation. . . . Everywhere you look, the writing is on the wall. Without

Global warming and anthropogenic atmospheric chemistry change are both real. They are not currently a crisis. But they are going to become a crisis, and then a disaster, unless something is done to effectively change the current trajectory of events.

Mapping the trajectory of a spacecraft is a relatively straightforward business, bounded only by the laws of physics. Mapping the trajectory of an idea through a political system, on the other hand, can be a dicey business.