On: Japan starts space elevator experiments

[jessaustin]

It could be that shoelaces and space elevators turn out to be on the same side of some tipping-point technological breakthrough.

[TheSpiceIsLife → jessaustin]

I’m guessing you mean to say carbon nanotube shoelaces.

But it’s amusing to think of it the other way: any society technologically advanced enough to have invented the shoelace will inevitably invent the space elevator.