I'm on the road so I can't do a Sunday Paper Club and this post will be very basic. (Off topic: The blackberry really needs a blogging application.)
Everyone who supports space habitation must remember that their mindset and their environment effects their mental image of space habitation. Most the research I've read is from the cold war era and all of that research tends to focus on human extinction and ending human suffering. I think this is because those thinkers existed in a time with a high threat of human extinction and the constant threat of war. Thus, they dreamed of space habitation as a solution to this fear they were feeling.
Newer research tends to move away from human extinction. My generation (I'm 18) has been told to follow their passions. So my vision for space habitation and the vision of members of my generation tend to look at look at space habitation as a source of inspiration and not a mission; not a destiny that must be fulfilled.
Not to say that any perspective is bad, but we will either have to get as many perspectives as possible or transcend our perspectives to generate the best multi-generational plan for humanity. We must find a plan that will speak to every generation and be consistent with what they value.
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