Biology as a technology will be our only potential long term future. All we need to do right now is access one near Earth large m-type astroid that was a planetesimal core. That would likely yield more mineral wealth than humans have accessed in the entire Holocene. Scarcity drives the present world. Planetary gravitational differentiation is a mean bitch that left us to fight over the scraps left over by eons of surface collisions. We live on the planetary flux and light junk that floats to the surface. The core of any differentiated body is quite literally the limitless treasure at the center of the Earth. If such a body is accessed, that upends scarcity and therefore all of our economic value systems. However it unlocks the wealth and resources needed to build O’Neill cylinder size cislunar habitats. Those habitats then force development of closed loop biological systems. Heat dissipation becomes the primary constraint in such a place. It actually becomes a primary currency and therefore shifts cultural values significantly. The removal of anonymous exploitation of environmental wealth due to a closed loop system like an O’Neill cylinder will be the main catalyst that makes the present look as backwards and primitive as the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, or Han Chinese of 2k+ years ago. We can build O’Neill cylinders up to 9.1 × 30 kilometers based on materials science of the 1970s. The main thing stopping us is access to resources and political will. A single m-type astroid with an Apollo program size effort is all it takes to enter a new epic that dwarfs the present.