Think about the explosion in scientific understanding, world commerce and enlightenment values that came with the expansion of the British empire. Then think about the explosion of world commerce and related technological advances that came from colonising North America. We're still feeling those benefits wash over us as a species. Then think about what happens when we reach a tipping point where exploiting and colonising near Earth space becomes commercially viable. Like war, rapid expansion into virgin territories can be at once chaotic, uncontrollable and radically socially, technologically and economically invigorating.