Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
The problem is that excess is what drives innovation and exploration. If we simplify, we don't go to Mars. Going to Mars probably isn't immediately important or clearly beneficial to humanity, and I'm only using Mars as a representation of the many things we won't discover (or won't discover as quickly) if excess isn't leveraged. We've solved so many problems with technology precisely because we aren't spending 90% of our time farming. The larger and more productive our farming operations, the more time we get to spend being creative.
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Sun Tzu,in the Art of War,speaks of a country developing a food surplus,which leads to the intentional development of a middle-class,which can invent and innovate advanced weapon systems with which to maintain state hegemony.
When the global population was 100,000,000,it wasn't a problem.In a consumer-capitalist economy working up to a population of 10-billion it's a different calculus.
Our biggest problems have been associated with access to cheap,plentiful,fossil-fuels.
We live on Earth.It's the planet NASA needs to consider terra-forming.When we have that under control,only then would we have the luxury of dinking around with lunar and Martian colonies.
Some of the smartest people come from s--t-hole nations that may go under water.You might consider protecting a potentially valuable asset.