Normal gravitation can be simulated in a lunar environment as well by constructing large rotating rings with sloped floors, magnetically suspended above the ground to prevent friction losses. Also, launch from the lunar surface could be performed much more cheaply than from earth with a magnetic mass-driver, thanks to the hard vacuum and the lower gravity.

Belt asteroids will probably not be nearly as popular initially due to speed of light delays and huge travel times. There won’t be decent internet access or real-time phone calls. The commercial motivation of asteroid mining may outweigh this, particularly if too many regulations on NEA mining are enacted, and some people will of course want to get away from earth government for ideological reasons. Internet caching stations may make surfing more bearable, as disk space availabilty is increasing — but conquoring the speed of light barrier is impossible under current understandings of physics. Travel times to and from the belt will be enormous as well, so the development of good life support and ways to keep psychological health up would be necessary prerequisites.

The asteroid belt is so large that its inhabitants won’t be able to have a single internet where you can talk in real-time. Only caching will let belters access the majority of sites. Perhaps there will be different governments defined by speed-of-light factors. Of course, it’s only a matter of hours to send a message anywhere in the inner solar system, so it may not be enough to stop the determined spread of bureaucracy. For that, you may need to head for the Oort cloud.

One big concern that space travellers will need to confront is that an asteroid can be accelerated or steered to create a really fearsome impact weapon. Anti-impact measures will need to be developed and implemented by any colony, as well as earth itself.