Of course the mark of an intelligent man is when he agrees with you;
We've had our photo op; now comes the infrastructure. Now comes the backbreaking work that won't finish until space elevators stretch from Malaysia to Guyana. Till we lift the construction material to build wetdocks at L5. Till the gleaming bulkheads of lighthuggers are sealed far above this jewel of a planet.
Testing proto space elevator tech won't get anyone's flag-waving picture on the cover of Time.
But it'll get humanity that much closer to the stars and the untapped liberty and self-sufficiency they represent. That, my friends, is a path of which the merest step down may outweigh all the pretty pictures in the world.
