Reason, Don? Moi? naaawww... ;>)


Well, Gillymor... what 'we should' do is an interesting game to play, but my reading of history is that most advances... from the bow & arrow to the sailing ship to the cotton gin to a better mouse trap.... were in pursuit of a goal by someone seeking his own advantage.

As a matter of fact, I very much doubt that I...OR Musk.. will ever see a colony on Mars....but developing the ship to make the trip and (hopefully return) will provide data useful for 'other stuff'.

   I have read science fiction for almost 70 years and am quite aware that it is far easier to imagine certain advancements than to actually figger out how to do them... but Arthur C. Clarke anticipated several that are now a regular part of things.
I firmly **believe** that in trillions of stars in billions of galaxies, there are... or have been... other sentient species. I just don't believe that we will ever contact them... or that any of them are sneaking around in saucers watching us.
Maybe we will mine asteroids or put some sort of 'base' on the moon... but unless we achieve population control, all those ideas are moot.