[drugsprevi]

Well, assuming AC's got a viable planet on it, that's...Wiki says it's four light years, if I'm reading it right. That's a couple of decades for people to spend on a ship just waiting for the thing to get there. Even with relativistic whatchamas, that's a considerable amount of one's life to sacrifice. I imagine we'd have to send a probe first just to know if the planet's viable, and the combined times mean the colonization of AC won't happen in either of our lifetimes unless we make some major longevity-boosting discoveries or revolutionize our understanding of physics. Or both.

With the nearest hope so far away, any colony will be effectively cut off from Earth. The expense and time required to reach it will make any commercial enterprise implausible; I don't think any known resource, in any concentration, would be worth such investment. It would take four years and more just to send a message, then another four to get a reply. As far as our planet is concerned, the people sent to AC would no longer exist. And that's why I'm pretty sure it won't happen; it's a massive, long-term investment that will produce nothing to benefit the investor beyond the satisfaction that human beings will exist somewhere so far away it boggles our comprehension. We managed to gin up the cash to land people on the moon, but that's a pitifully minor accomplishment by comparison, only took ten or so years to plan and about a week to accomplish, and we can actually see the celestial body we landed on with the naked eye. Despite that, we lost our enthusiasm for it quickly.

A more interesting idea, to me, is underwater cities. The technological and political barriers are far lower, the environment is far more viable, and it might even be cost-effective under the right circumstances.