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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 5277576" data-attributes="member: 8863">Yeah, space tourism is likely to be the main impetus in the near future, the super-rich have run out of places to see here on Earth so the need to go into space to brag about something.  A lot of the problem is politics and a lack of vision to go into space.  Exploration in the past was carried out partially because expanding empires were looking to conquer new territory.  But there's a view in many of the nations who currently have any space flight capabilities that the whole nation-state concept is outdated and shouild be discarded, and that the whole space race was just a bunch of worthless patriotic chest-thumping that did nothing but plant a flag on the moon and bring back some rocks and dirt, and thus was a colossal waste of money, we should take care of our own problems instead.  Never mind that one such problem that is nearly always brought up is poverty, which we haven't gotten around to solving in 6 odd millenia of recorded civilization.  If we could solve it in that much time is it worth the effort, or do our thinkers and moral authorities think they can do so because some of their ethics are different from those of the past?  My problem with that is if you look for excuses not to go into space, you'll never develop any of the needed technologies or propulsion to do so.At least some nations aren't so blinded by such thinking.  We'll need it eventually, because I agree with Hawking's assessment; staying stuck on Earth indefinitely will lead to our eventual extinction.  Even if we don't wipe ourselves out, the world cannot sustain us forever, even it can do so for a million lifetimes.  And we're not just a herd of stupid animals acting on instinctive impulses to feed and mate (well sometimes we aren't), we're aware of our existance and the likely potential for our own eventual extinction.  Some people have children because they know someday they will die, and they hope they can raise their children to influence the next generation.  Trying to get offworld does this for the whole human race, getting offworld is the only way we can ensure the survival of humanity over the very long term.  The only extinction of H. sapiens I am willing to accept is one that happens after a new species of Homo has emerged and carries on our legacy.  Anything else to me is absolutely morally unacceptable.</blockquote>

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