Agreed. The numbers get staggeringly huge too fast and too much and to build from the top down you'd already need an industrial space solution anyway.

Geostationary orbit 35,000+km/22,000+miles away, but you'd also need all of that counter weight extending MUCH farther out as you simultaneously build back towards Earth (or else it would begin to fall "down"). A VERY critical balance would be necessary the entire time. How would you land/connect?

Not only that, but you'd definitely need at least 3 lanes for lack of a better term. 1 up, 1 down, and 1 on perpetual maintenance.

It's a nice abstract idea, but when you actually start to think about it...

However it's interesting that even 20 years ago, in the previous century, with our existing technology then, with concrete and steel, if someone had an ego with a budget and a purpose, technically, we could have built a tower that's 20km tall. Obviously that means we could also do it now. But to what end?

I've thought extensively on these matters (and more) and have my own practical (but not cheap) solutions for industrializing space in my subversive cautionary hard-sci-fi tale, though it doesn't take place until the 3rd act starting off the dramatic final act and climax in space. I should be finishing my first draft of Bittersweet Seeds instead of this, but this year has been crazy and I don't have focus nor discipline, and other things that need my help keep landing in my lap. I can't decide how best to save the world!