The Scientists Are Terrified

[hunter]

81. In the long run most earth species don't survive. More than 99.9% are extinct.

The universe is big and we humans are nothing special, except to ourselves. This earth has seen many innovative species come and go, mere flashes in the pan.

I doubt humans will ever have a significant presence in space beyond Low Earth Orbit. But if we are not complete idiots, maybe our intellectual children will. These will be engineered beings who can walk naked in places that would rapidly kill a natural human, places like the surface of Mars.

If I thought saving our species off-planet was important (I don't) I'd put my money into the development of artificial intelligences that reflect our own.

Unfortunately the Star Trek future is probably impossible in this universe and faster-than-light travel is fantasy.

I suspect that species who do escape their home planets and thrive end up creating their own universes which are more to their own liking and inaccessible to this one. That explains the Fermi Paradox quite neatly with a minimum of fuss.