Context: Solving the space junk problem
In any conceptual domain (such as future configurations of Near Earth Orbit) where there are many degrees of lliteral-spatial, commercial, strategic or technological freedom beyond the most overt saliences of interest – the over-population mentioned in the abstract – we will probably find that ambiguities and unknowns will be as, if not more, important than what can be defined or identified ever could be.
The exceptions in this context include:
• Unforseen future technological developments
• Kessler Syndrome cascades under any causal mechanism
• Strategic near-Earth shenanigans or conflict
(Among many others.)
In the prospective case of “solving” the problem of overcrowding via creating an economic cost or market-driven dimension to this problem, there is (at least) one probable and predictable consequence. That is – industries and economies will orient themselves towards the self-propagation of a market system which will seek and produce value from overcrowding as a primary source of self-validating revenue.
These kinds of mechanisms and market-driven faux pas have a tendency to become anachronisms that outlive their intended utility and exhibit extreme fragility to the kinds of exceptions indicated above.
