HPM@S1-A@sri-unix (09/19/82)
From: Hans Moravec <HPM at S1-A> The main reason for space as opposed to planetary residence, as I see it, is that there is a lot more space than planetary surface, and its condition is more predictable. The moon can support maybe the equivalent of a billion people - but that same material dispersed into free orbiting colonies can support maybe a thousand times as many. Eventually the sun is surrounded by an obscuring cloud of materials-efficient orbiting habitats, a la Dyson, instead of a paltry handful of profligately materials-wasteful mudballs.