Colonizing Mars

The Sun radiates about 400 trillion trillion Watts in all directions, and only a couple of billionths of it crosses Earth. There's a lot more radiant energy spreading out into the void waiting to be Dyson Swarmed. There's no way we're going to rocket launch billions to Mars, and there isn't another planet worth living on without unreasonable amounts of energy for Terraforming. But we are capable of rebuilding the atoms of Earth into much larger living environments - there are so many atoms it wouldn't mean destroying the Earth to do it. A Space Elevator doesn't need diamond nanowire, it could be built with enough steel chain. An orbital ring around the Equator would be enormous and would take approximately nothing of the Earth's matter to construct. Isaac Arthur's YouTube channel is full of speculation and plans for all kinds of possible or nearly-possible futures, as well as more distant dreams. e.g. the playlists: - "The future of Energy, Industry and Agriculture" - [link] - "Earth v2.0" - [link] - "Outward Bound" - near-Earth space exploration and living - [this video] - "Visions of Earth" - arcologies, megacities, ecumenopolises, geoengineering, weather control - [link] And somewhere in there, megastructures such as Dyson Spheres, ringworlds, etc.