The concept of real estate is largely depending on how we are glued to earth! What will it be if in the future we could forgo the glue of earth altogether and build a city in space? The space elevator is a concept that is in science fiction realm, and today we don’t have anything like this yet. Nonetheless, this space elevator concept could become true if we got the right materials and plan to make it a reality. Once humans travel through space easily as if how one would take a bus or a train on earth, then the idea of living in space becomes rather mundane.
We humans always think that we need another planet out there to be a second earth, but what if the cost of building a city in space in a modular fashion in a sense that space elevator concept could expand into a space highway and such — wouldn’t this be more doable and cheaper and time-saving than trying to find a second earth? So I would imagine that a highway system in space would function similar to space elevator but the system itself would be more expansive. After all, a space elevator could be a quick fix for a short distance from one point in space to another point in space. Perhaps, space highway is like a bigger, more durable space elevator, and the spaceships that travel through this space highway system won’t need to use a self-powered propulsion system to traverse quickly from one point in space to another point in space. Wouldn’t this be fuel efficient?
Of course, we could argue that space highway is kind of stupid if spaceships could just fly freely in space without needing to stick to an asphalt. Nonetheless, space highway could function as fuel saving mechanism/system and much more. Spiritually, space highway could function as a system that turns the idea of space city into a real community/city. Imagine how much more expensive to build a small earth in space, and so it’s not wise to do so. Instead, each spaceship could act like a car, home, restaurant, and so on. The space highway then acts as a highway system that connects the necessary points in space to form a loose space city system. From this highway, a home in space could fly from one point to another without needing to use any fuel unless the home is going to fly off the space highway system.
I think a concept of loose space city system — if it’s a reality — could turn the idea of owning a piece of real estate upside down. After all, everything would be floating in space and won’t stay put. Furthermore, even the highway itself could be floating continuously, albeit that it would stay in the same large vicinity in space. Once people actually live in such a space city, people won’t be able to differentiate a house from a car, a car from a restaurant, and so forth. After all, humans in space would be in a spaceship most of the time. So, humans in space would think their spaceship as either a home, a car in a space highway system, a business location, a restaurant to invite other humans to come to dine and so forth.
In summary, I think when people begin to think a city in space in a loose space city system, the real estate concept would be completely different than the one that we use for cities on a planet. Of course, humans don’t have to stick to only one type of space city. After all, we could find a second earth and create even more cities from far away in space. In my opinion, a loose space city system could be the extra real estate for a closeby planet. For an example, let’s say earth would run out of space and people could create extra space real estate by creating a loose space city system just right outside of earth.