In one of those Twitter coincidences, these appeared adjacent on my screen. I just wrote a paper on the "Economic and Social Justice Needs to Broaden Ownership of In-Space Industry." This is a previously unexplored topic that will have great consequence within a few decades. 
2/ The study of economic growth deals with issues that become less relevant once we have largely autonomous industry off-planet. Growth needn't be governed by supply, demand, labor, land, finance, or social rules. Growth can be purely metabolic (matter & energy) and VERY fast.
3/ This potential for rapid scale-up is the reason why robotic space industry, when it has adequate machine intelligence, will bring an economic revolution. It won't merely be a way for enterprising people to do some business. It will deeply change the structure of civilization.
4/ This is different than the (merely earthly) concern about robots taking our jobs. It shares in common the fact that robots WILL take the jobs. But it includes recognition that it will happen outside the Earth's social and economic limits to growth. This can be good or bad...
5/ It can be good because it gives us the ability - much faster than most know - to solve global challenges and do amazing things. It can be bad because the unparalleled rate of scale-up can create an unparalleled gap between privileged and non-privileged.
6/ The best way to get the good outcome while avoiding the bad one - maybe the only way - is to broaden the ownership of in-space industry before the rapid scale-up can begin, so everyone's equity will scale-up together.
7/ Metabolic growth of robotic productivity will create economic, political and military power that will be decisive in the future of civilization. That decisive power should be shared by people from every segment of society, every nation, every people group...
8/8 I've become convinced that a broadening of the ownership of in-space industry is vital for democracy to survive into the next century. It needs to start almost immediately. (I'm submitting a paper on this to a journal and will make it public, soon.)
