That's true I suppose, and that affects costs. I dare say there must be an
optimum size for something like a blast furnace which keeps unit costs to a
minimum. Too small and unit costs would be too high for it to be profitable.
However that wouldn't be an issue if the steel were going to be used within
a self replicating system.

Eficiency always affects the issue. However in space

Fe2O3 +3CO -> 3CO2 + 2Fe is not appropiate for space.

Better Fe2O3 + 6HCl -> 2FeCl3 + 3H2O

FeCl3 -> 2Fe + 3Cl (Fe at cathode Cl at anode)

This is a cold process. Fe needs to heated to melt and cast. Energy
provided by photovoltaics.

If you have Aluminium, Iron and other chlorides you purify be
fractional crystallization. Aluminium is produced by dissolving Al2O3
into cryolye and electrolyzing. Iron oxide will not dissolve. This is a
warm process occuring at some 700C. These would be the basic processes.

One point about iron is that the terrestrial extraction processes
produce what is termed Pig Iron containg 4% carbon.. Mild steewl is
produced by oxidizing carbon. Space iron would be a lot purer and it
might be better to use aluminium to fix dislocations rather than
carbon.

3SiO2 + 2Al -> 3Si + 2Al2O3

Will get you your silicon.

Interesting enough I was reading an article the other day which suggested
there are indications that Cheeters are genetically engineered, and the
smoking gun is apparently they possess genetic material derived from dogs.
Well I don't know if that's true, but if it is, it means someone was
genetically engineering animals on this planet a long time ago. Because it
is unlikely such a hybrid species would occur naturally in nature, and
apparently Cheeters do have breeding problems like many hybrid species.
Pandas are perhaps another oddity.

Actually it is not as unlikely as might be supposed. One of the methods
of Genetic Engineering is the use of a virus. Some time in the past
this could have hapenned to cheetahs. The Panda BTW is a bear. On the
whole the fractal evidence agrees pretty well with the fossil record
although the fractal record (the differences in DNA) is more complete.
Fossilization is in fact rare.

Well at some point I would think the Far Eastern economies are going to
develop to the point where they make machines to do all the manufacturing
work, and the Western economies are going to be totally reliant on the Far
East for manufacturing (we already are). The fact that the Far Eastern
economies can then dictate the prices. The Western economies will collapse.

Presicesly. There is just one crumb of confort and that is the
investment $1e12 that China has in the global economy. The Chinese have
an interest therefore in NOT pushing the US to the wall. They would
probably start shifting their investments. However the key decisions
will be taken in Beijing and Delhi.