The way I can see it, one can view the universe through two different lenses.
Dreamer: The cosmos is a vast expanse ripe for exploration and scientific advancement. If we ever hope to achieve a better understanding of the universe and the beings that inhabit it, we must scatter across the stars in hopes of unlocking secrets beyond our wildest imagination. We can accomplish this by putting our petty differences aside and pulling our efforts towards seeking out what no one has ever laid eyes upon.
or
Doomer: The unimaginably terrifying void that is space is wrought with chaos and decay. It actively tries to kill (hah anthropomorphism of the stars!) anything that makes an attempt to thrive. The sheer scope of distance in-between objects in space is unfathomable for humans, and physics itself may not even allow us to traverse it within a relatively short time. Mankind is forsaken to live out its days on this pale blue dot, either butchering each other mercilessly or living in contempt.
Unless we somehow invent FTL tech, or find a way to terraform mars, OR get radically shifted by a type 3 civilization, I don't know how we will ever get off this rock in a significant way. There is just too much shit that is holding us back. Hell, even if we all came together and decided to get the fuck off the rock, the odds that we would make an astronomical breakthrough probably aren't all that great. As it stands, we can't rely on fossil fuels forever. The environment is getting raped and cheaper alternatives are making themselves known, and yet they are nowhere near as efficient. Every generation has said it, but I honestly think the next 100 years is make-or-break for humans. We either become adopt a more sustainable method of living, or we continue on the current trajectory, sending us into frightening uncertainty.
But that's...not really true. Firstly, the distance in between two points in observable space
is within the grasp of humans, we call that light-years. Since the speed of information is a constant, c (given as the speed of light measured in centimeters per second in Einstein's mass–energy equivalence equation), that's actually quite convenient for scientists to use to determine distances and how they relate to travel time. Secondly, 10-20% light speed is fine for the purposes of colonizing the solar system in a meaningful way. 10% is roughly an upper estimated limit of fission powered ships, 20% for fusion powered ones. So no, not stuck on the "pale blue dot", even if the old joke that "fusion is the technology of 20-30 years from now, and always will be" ends up holding water. Thirdly, again, faster than light travel is not necessary to make a meaningful attempt at colonizing the solar system in a way that culminates in K2 status and results in a post-scarcity civilization. This isn't even Clarketech, you can look up the theoretical principles easily enough on your own. Fourth, the "odds" of us making "an astronomical breakthrough" are considerably higher than most people realize. I'll refer to John F. Kennedy's address at Rice Stadium:
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.
Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.
This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.
So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space.
Less than a decade after these "overly optimistic" words were spoken, and plenty of critics claimed fallacious statements such as "rockets don't work well in space, we'll never get our men back alive", we put a man on the moon. So it is the height of presumption to assume that because things seem politically charged or tense now, in a century
without the existential threat of fascism or nuclear holocaust brought on by the Cold War, that for those reasons alone we will never get off this rock. Call me a dreamer if you want, I don't care and I'm in good company:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
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