First, I want to say I really appreciate you making the effort to point out these objections or questions, because I really had no idea we had such divergent understandings. Some things seem to have been poorly expressed by me, and has prevented my meaning from being understood. I am really surprised by the divergence between our understanding of tech advance, and am encouraged by this, because I know we are both reasonable people that, were we to honestly make the (substantial) effort it would take to thoroughly discuss each of these areas of divergence we'd be able to agree on much.

But, I do understand these issues aren't within your range of interests, and this is revealed by that divergence in our understanding. I am not particularly interested in a variety of subjects, and while I can nod politely and make attentive sounds during a lengthy discussion of them, I do understand just how interminable such a discussion can feel like it is.

So I won't do that to you. None of this is anything you have to consider. You have a full and rewarding life and I don't need to disturb any of it to enjoy discussing things with you and learning from your perspective. But realize that Earth is a large aquaponics system in space. We live in space right now.

I'll just touch on a couple things so you won't have to keep considering me completely irrational on the subject. First, I don't mention a time frame, and there's a lot of different time frames, from decades to centuries. When Mercedes was constructing his horseless carriage in the late 19th Century, he may have waxed prosaic on a future in which such carriages were common - and even those familiar with the device he was constructing would have been extremely dubious such impractical devices, as his early experiments surely were, would ever be popular at all.

That's about where we're at with table top manufacturing, maybe a little bit further, since there are hobbyists and enthusiasts in the space, but not much further than that. The home manufacturing industry has certainly not approached the comparative point in it's development as automobiles reached when Henry Ford standardized precision parts and invented interchangable part manufacturing, assembly lines, and the like. For a non-hobbyist to have a vision of a Model T in every barn before then just from having seen some of the bespoke prototype automobiles that were available would be comparable to you grasping that everything that could be needed by a household could be manufactured by the household, and this would become the rule, rather than the exception.

It's not something you have a level of interest to gain an understanding of how useful it could be, just as people that rode horse drawn buggies before Ford produced any Model T's would have no idea they could ever be as useful as Ford (and paved roads) made them. Had someone before Ford described the Autobahn of the 1970s as the certain result of automobiles, it would have caused them to think, as you probably do of me, the dreamer was quite irrational. I will here note that as roads are to automobiles, automation is to home manufacturing. We eventually won't need to run this machinery because AI will. This is the only real utility I think AI actually has, because I don't think it will ever become capable of consciousness.

Also, I agree that not everyone will have that mentality, as you say, to become able to produce what they need, even after supply lines are cut and there aren't markets anymore. Many people can do many different things, and most can do many things they don't want to do, if they have to do them to live, but not everyone can do everything, and there are certainly many folks that just couldn't make the leap. I don't think everyone will. I do think enough will. You mention currency. There is a post-market economy coming. There will not be any way to buy and sell things, and no money. Eventually space habitats either make what they need, or die of unmet need.

Very few will pioneer in space, because at first it will be far more restrictive than prison. Just like pioneers in any major migration or diaspora, the initial conditions for the first are life threatening, and only some of these attempts are even survived. The first attempt to colonize N. America by England failed, and the fate of the Jamestown colonists is still at question, for example.

However, after a couple decades of effort some successful colonies did arise, and soon had quite livable quarters and towns. Space will be like that too, the early efforts incredibly difficult and survival challenging. There may not soon be hikes in mountains as is possible on Earth, but after some development environments will become quite comfortable and pleasant. While montane, riverine, and lacustrine expanses may be many centuries off, I am confident environments with forests, ponds, and shoals, flocks, and herds of animals, much like parks (although trees will be young, herds small, and ecosystems still being established) within a century of the first pioneers. I am sure that is not how you envision space environments, but I am quite confident that people need such environments, and that's what they will live in: large aquaponics systems.

I think at some point I referred to illimitable resources that are available everywhere else but Earth, and used the expression 'off Earth' that may have been understood as 'of Earth'. My meaning was that there is so much raw material to be developed that no one has claimed, no one owns, and nothing prevents the ambitious from developing but their effort, that there will be a lot of pioneers intent on getting some of them first. Asteroid Psyche is estimated to be worth from $1 - $10 quadrillion.

Someone ambitious wants to develop it and become the first $Quadrillionaire, and they'll be willing to suffer a lot to earn that distinction. Anyway, that's just one asteroid. There's millions of them pretty close to Earth, and billions of them a little further away. That's the magnitude of resources that are available just in the solar system, so much that the wealth that can come from such development isn't comparable to anything that has ever been possible on Earth. Inconceivable wealth.

But that's all I wanted to address. I don't need to convince you of anything - but very much don't want you to think I'm irrational, because I respect your opinion. It seemed to me you had to think me irrational from the gulf in our understanding. I hope I have at least suggested I am not bonkers, if I've not convinced you to go out and buy a laser engraver right away.