[count]

European global expansion also had hard physics limits. The age of sail grew the global GDP tremendously. I wouldn't discount multi-year asteroid mining trips/etc. from having the same impact in 50-100 years.

[ouid]

Really? What do you imagine to be receiving from an asteroid that cannot more easily be obtained from the earth?

[diab0lic]

Large volumes of minerals that are already in space (don't need to expend energy putting them in orbit) to build settlements, ships, etc...