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The first step toward reaching the stars is realized the void is not empty, its potential. In the

deep night between the stars, humanity

built its greatest cities. Recently, we did episodes exploring how asteroids in the belt

might one day evolve into city states, and that followed up with looks at both deep space

habitats and interstellar relays, but I felt those still left much unsaid

about what may very well become the most critical infrastructure, and even defining civilizations

of the future. Now, you don't need to have seen those earlier episodes to follow along today,

though many of the details are explored in greater depth there. Still, three ideas carry over. First, space is

vast. Second, the rocket equation is not our friend when it comes to crossing it. And third,

interstellar space, though unimaginably wide, is not empty. That alone tells us that some

kind of infrastructure to span that near infinity must be built,

and a mistake people often make is underestiming just how large a role that infrastructure will play,

or underestimating just how big humanity is willing to dream and to build.

A developed solar system doesn't just sit idle under its star.

It begins to harness most of the sunlight, rather than letting it spill uselessly into the void.

Two of the potential uses are powering vast interstellar relays and inviting sunlight to immense space habitats.

As a result, such a civilization could easily support billions of times more people than Earth does now,

...