Quote Originally Posted by SadisticNature View Post
Political conditions have improved dramatically in the past 500 years. We've gone from Monarchies to Democracy's, from an institution where everyone is subject to the whims of the leaders to a government of law.
The forms have changed, perhaps, but the people running them haven't. Ask the women of Afghanistan if things are better for them than 500 years ago. Or the people in central Africa. Or countless other nations around the world who's political leaders' only concerns are improving their own lives at the expense of their people. No, the conditions are the same. It's only the rhetoric which has changed.

Furthermore a lot of the barrier is technological, and we've had huge technological advances even in the last 10 years. If that continues, eventually the price of spacecraft will come down so far that exploration is viable.
Which is precisely my point. It has gotten to the point where corporations, instead of nations, will be leading the way. That's what will cause the prices to fall. That's what will fuel the colonization of space and the planets. Only when the corporations and the rugged individualists have gone in and tamed things will the governments step in and start trying to control things. Hopefully, this time we won't let them.