Adam Hibberd
I have recently read a review of a book titled "Astrotopia: the Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race" written by a professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein and it is reviewed by Patrick Mahon, who is on the Board of Directors for i4is. The review can be found here.
You might be interested in that it concerns the benefits and dangers of the exploration of space by humanity.
I would like to weigh in on this subject because it is one close to my heart.
The problem is that the discourse on this sort of subject is submerged deep in a parochial and ephemeral rhetoric - it is rarely the case that the arguments look forward and see the long-term landscape of the future.
For instance the question 'How is space exploration beneficial to humanity?' is answered in the limited context of our recent/current/future culture, science and history.
So the religious answer might be that there is NO benefit at all, or alternatively there is Patrick's recourse of stating it benefits the space industry (obv. on Earth) and also its investors here on Earth.
In my view neither of these arguments is adequate or sufficient as they are so blinkered.
What's happening here is that humanity in the LONG TERM must continue to exist.
That's how we behave individually EVERYDAY of our lives, we do things that ensure our continued survival, and for that matter, so have our ancestors.
You could argue this is evolution at work - it has made us this way.
Now ask yourself the question,' how long would we exist for if we stay rooted to our mother planet?' What would happen if an asteroid or a comet collided with the Earth? The Sun expanding into a Red Giant, an interstellar object (a rogue planet for instance) colliding with our Earth?
Clearly the answer is we must expand beyond our own planet.
I would even argue that 'curiosity' is an evolutionary trait which ensures precisely our collective continued survival, since it allows us to find dangers which otherwise might destroy us, or alternatively huge benefits which we could exploit to our own advantage.
Evolution has made us this way to increase our longevity and for that matter our chances of survival in this Universe.
THAT is why space exploration is so important to 'us' (and don't get me started on the definition of 'us').
What do YOU think?