Nasa

[lucy]

So just sit there at home bemoaning how other people choose to spend their money. Let those who really care about the human race push back the frontiers, making a better world, and a better solar system, for themselves. After all, it's not costing you anything.

Yup, that's why i said i don't care too much either way as you might recall.

Whether if those who push the boundaries are those who really care about the human race or whether they're just satisfying their egos is of course a totally different question. Who cares about the human race more, the general who leads his army into war, or the nurse who stays behind to tend to the injured and dying?
Who cares about the human race more, the pioneer who takes land that doesn't belong to him or the farmer's wife who stays behind and raises her children?

Btw, the one that flocked into America when it was still a 'frontier' (to white Europeans only, of course, native Americans probably didn't think of it as that, but again, a whole different topic) weren't exactly the brightest but the poorest and those who didn't have much of another choice left.

C) The species that develops the technology to do this before the others will have a great advantage over the species that stays planet bound and squanders their rescources on hedonist pursuits over interplanetary expansion.

Then I hope it's not us, but some life form that proves to live up to the term 'intelligent'.

Do you want to be the spannish conquistadors or the mayans in the above enevitable scenario?

Yes, let's prepare for war!!! Yippeeeee, intergalactic war, and we're in on it!!!
That's what we humans are really good at, aren't we? Killingmaimingenslaving each other and everything else that lives. So why not other, extraterrestrial lifeforms too? It's high time to let the rest of the universe know that they better not mess with us.
Wait, we shouldn't even stop for a second to try and communicate with them, that might screw the moment of surprise. Better nuke (we'll probably have much better weapons by then, tho) them first and not ask questions later.