Which is cooler: Ringworlds or Space Elevators?

[Yukaphile]

I mean, nuff said. For me, it's ringworlds, hands down.

[TGLS]

In a defense for Space Elevators, Space Elevators could potentially be built some day in reality, while Ringworlds cannot.

[Mecha82]

Since I am not familiar with either so I would have to say neither of those two. To me it would have to be Space Colony from Gundam instead. Those are based on concept of Dyson Spheres and could actually be build in future. Sure based on every Gundam that has those (UC and AU) those do have they risks beyond bunch of Space Nazis rising up to wage war.

[TGLS]

Since I am not familiar with either so I would have to say neither of those two. To me it would have to be Space Colony from Gundam instead. Those are based on concept of Dyson Spheres and could actually be build in future. Sure based on every Gundam that has those (UC and AU) those do have they risks beyond bunch of Space Nazis rising up to wage war.

Well, the more technical term is O'Neill Cylinder. However, space colonization has always had the problem of why the colonies are necessary to begin with; there's just no strong economic reason.

[Mecha82]

Since I am not familiar with either so I would have to say neither of those two. To me it would have to be Space Colony from Gundam instead. Those are based on concept of Dyson Spheres and could actually be build in future. Sure based on every Gundam that has those (UC and AU) those do have they risks beyond bunch of Space Nazis rising up to wage war.

Well, the more technical term is O'Neill Cylinder. However, space colonization has always had the problem of why the colonies are necessary to begin with; there's just no strong economic reason.

IIRC in Gundam one reason for it is overpopulation. It's why in some Gundam universes they pretty much tend to send poor and less fortunate to space colonies to be exploited while those with money enjoy from living on Earth. Sure there are those that wanted to go there but there is also those that went there because they had to. In UC time line people that become exploited by those in charge living on Earth become easy to rally behind those like Zeon Zum Deikun and later on Zabi family and be let to all out war against Earth Federation.

[Independent George]

Space elevators are kind of a prerequisite to building a ringworld. Or really any large-scale space infrastructure; rockets have a practical limit on how much mass you can get outside of the gravity well.

[Darth Wedgius]

Ringworlds are way cooler to me, but probably not a good idea. Niven knew they required a fantastically strong material, so he invented scrith. A topopolis (instead of the ring being open toward the sun and spun for artificial gravity, the ring is closed like a loop of hose and spun smoke ring fashion) or rungworld (where the ring is basically made of a lot of O'Neill cylinders rotating perpendicularly to the structure's orbit, making them look like rungs in a circular ladder) AFAIK could theoretically be done.

Space elevators might be a good idea, but even there I prefer laser launch systems.

[Madner Kami]

Space elevators are kind of a prerequisite to building a ringworld. Or really any large-scale space infrastructure; rockets have a practical limit on how much mass you can get outside of the gravity well.

Pretty much this. Without space elevators, accessing a ring world or even building it, is completely out of the question.The space elevator is far more practical and useful.