This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

The issue I see with your argument, Agent, is space-pertaining endeavours (I'ma give 'em the blanket term Spacecapades from here on out - because wider-range space travel is a totally different barrel of space-coconuts to, say, space observation like Ol' Hubble or experiments in zero gravity) are actively removing Earth's resources. The key point being, the ones humanity's gotta worry about - seeing's in the billennial/ecosystem scheme of things a bit of fossil fuel or aluminium going missing won't matter squat.

We could dig up the earth until we'd eked out every rocket-powering mineral - and expended a lot of energy in that process - and the net impact of that one probe/sleeper craft/missile would probably still pale in comparison to the solar-powered biosphere that's still chugging along back on Earth. In like, the course of one year's photosynthesising/metabolising/ATP-firing.

The planet's perfectly capable of supporting a stable human population - trouble is, if it's going to be six billion people+ who give a shit about equality then we'll all have to live like our great-great-great grandparents did - which either means no internet or genocide. Your pick!

Having said that, your pipe dream's space exploration - mine just happens to be humanity's mastery and intelligent custodianship over the ecosystem. When I spend my summer watching a field of Brassica napus develop its pods, then consider how the oil therein might be extracted, processed, and pumped into a vehicle that's used to carve rare metals out of the ground so they can clad/stabilise/power/accesorize a spacecraft... well. Maybe I'm selfish, but maybe I feel like that biodiesel's better-used hauling my lazy arse to work so I can find out how magical and weird and relevant to our daily lives the lives of insects are, so I can tell people in turn.

My cynicism in your enthusiasm is as much selfishness as it is selflessness for humanity at large. I just think there's too much fantastic things on Earth without having to discard it and jet off to an extremely hypothetical elsewhere.