Was there enough time for a planet like earth to exist long before earth?

[Zaire]

you are all forgetting how advanced alien technology will be. just look at how far human technology has progressed in the last 100 years! think about it!

 

if aliens had been around for just 1000 years instead of the proposed 2 BILLION, they would have technology the likes of which we can only imagine.

[SkepticLance]

Lockheed said

 

" aging will still happen, simply because of sheer erosion of our bodies."

 

Yeah, but with 100 + years of medical advances, it ain't necessarily so!

 

Remember that our bodies are 'eroding' all the time, and being repaired all the time. The net 'erosion' effect is simply because, with enough ageing, deterioration exceeds repair. This is an accelerating process. Older people deteriorate quicker than young people, because their repair mechanisms are less effective. I know of no reason in theory, why treatments could not exist which boost the repair mechanisms while the patient is young, and thus keep them young.

 

Why would anyone build space habitats?

It is not going to be a case of some government or megacorporation suddenly saying: "Let's build a space habitat."

 

These things evolve into being. I would imagine that the space elevator will be built long before the first big habitat. Once there is enough traffic up and down the elevator, and all the successive elevators, building space vehicles large enough to carry a community able almost to be self sustaining then becomes an economic advantage. Things will evolve from there. Remember we are talking about the distant future. Lots of time for new structures and new societies to evolve.