Hans Moravec is really into space elevators. Is there some correlation between being an AI researcher and having an interest in space mega-engineering?
Almost certainly, simply because they both strongly correlate with being geeks. And SF geeks in particular. And the very particular sort of hard SF geek who feels right at home at Shock Level 4 [1].
yes, it's known as the nerd space elevator strange attractor. It is frequently observed in nature with its related chaotic entities, the national-scale DC power grid attractor, and the singularity attractor (some argue that all these attractors are really just specific instances of the singularity attractor).
It's a nice hard problem with lots of juicy subproblems that you can work on even through the central problem (materials science) is nowhere near being solvable.
[1] http://sl4.org/shocklevels.html and literally on http://sl4.org/