[extropy-chat] Space elevator numbers III

[Jef Allbright]

Keith Henson wrote:

> At 01:01 PM 2/15/2007 -0800, Dave wrote:
> 
> snip
> 
>> Not to mention the materials science and economics.
>> I'd place the odds of having a terrestrial tether
>> system of any sort operational within the next 20
>> years at around one in a million.
> 
> If we never start, the odds are worse than that.

Keith, this is certainly an interesting technical challenge, but what is
your thinking on robustness and resilience within the foreseeable
socio-political environment?  More specifically, this design would seem
to present a very high-value target to "terrorists", with multiple
failure modes inherently lacking in contingency or fallback methods.
Wouldn't this be very much a case of putting some very expensive eggs in
a very exposed basket?

- Jef