(Love In A) Space Elevator!

Via the guru of gurus, Instapundit, there's this article on building a space elevator in 7 years and how it could possibly be done. I love this idea. The massive costs associated with putting people into space could be severely reduced and this, should the technology be developed to pull this off, could really be humanity's springboard outwards to the stars. (Because I don't care what anyone says, as long as we're all on one planet, our species is at risk for self-destruction or destruction from above or some other crazy thing. Putting humans out that ensures the survival of our species. Plus a really cool, Star Trek-like future.)