[brbethke]

If people can live in an infinite pleasure fantasy world, will they wish to make sacrifices in the real one?

Yes! Because, see -- WE'LL KILL THEM WHEN THEY TURN 30!

No, wait, that one's been done...

[Tokhtamish]

I never liked that one. Killing people at precisely the point when they are becoming really useful is dumb.

Another problem I had with space scenarios was the motivation for colonization. Either "Australia" (dumping ground for Earth's unwanted) or "Suburban White Flight" (the well off fleeing Earth's squalor). Well, "Australia" makes little sense because nobody is going to build spaceships to empty Earth's prisons, ghettos, and homeless shelters. And if technology has progressed to the point where every well to do person gets his own Darryl Hannah doll, why leave Earth at all ?