The Final Frontier:

Why should we go into space? What is that justification for spending all that effort and money on getting a few lumps of Moon rock? Aren’t there better causes here on Earth?

In a way, the situation was like that in Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase over an almost unimaginable distance. Yet, the discovery of the New World made a profound difference to the old one.

Stephen Hawking makes the case solidly and deftly applies common sense to the question. The idea of panspermia is pretty well acknowledged (and was the basis for explaining why all the races on Star Trek were all humanoid and same-ish). I sort of wish he had mentioned The Great Filter (he touches on the subject, although very briefly), if only for the sake of argument.

If you know anyone who is on the fence or against space travel, and isn’t a creationist zealot, point them in the direction of this article.

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