What got me interested in Space Colonies a few years ago was a chance remark by a grade-school teacher. She said that most of her kids expected to live in Space. A generation that grew up with Space, I realized, was going to lead to another generation growing up in Space. For these kids there's been a change in scope. They can hold the oceans of the world comfortably in their minds, like large lakes.
Space is the ocean now.
Astronaut Rusty Schweickart swallowed his Air Force loyalty and agreed. And for those who long for the harshest freedoms, or who believe with Buckminster Fuller that a culture's creativity requires an Outlaw Area, Free Space becomes what the oceans have ceased to be - Outlaw Area too big and dilute for national control. Well, say the most dogmatic Space Colony proponents, you could solve, in order, the Energy Crisis, the Food Crisis, the Arms Race, the Population Problem, and maybe even the Climatic Shift. Liberals and environmentalists hoot in derision. Then a year later some of them are back for a second look.