Talk:United North American States/@comment-3084244-20141024131225/@comment-5870856-20141024191535

The idea I was thinking of was that the point of divergence is in the past rather than the future; namely, the printed circuit's invention is delayed and so von Braun's space station is created. By 2014, we could be looking at non-terrestrial human settlement as far afield as the Moon and Mars, maybe even a few of those floating cities Carl Sagan dreamed up in the Venusian atmosphere. And mining asteroids could more than pay for exploring the final frontier, so economic crisis averted :)