Thread: When will humanity expand into space?

The most practical reason to go into space is in order to mine resources. I'm the kind of guy that prefers economically motivated industry (as opposed to societally motivated infrastructure) be handled privately (though I believe the employees should own the company on a democratic level). While colonization is an important first step, the first to stake new territory are those dreaming of opportunity.

Unfortunately this won't be very pretty. Cmind is trying to romanticize share-holders to an unfair degree. If oil companies here are pushing fracking even though it's proven to cause earthquakes, if it's been proven Monsanto is killing the bees (which would kill us, too) and they're suppressing the studies rather than changing or being dismantled, you can fully expect some awful atrocities to accompany space exploration, as well.

Originally Posted by Original Poster

Unfortunately this won't be very pretty. Cmind is trying to romanticize share-holders to an unfair degree. If oil companies here are pushing fracking even though it's proven to cause earthquakes, if it's been proven Monsanto is killing the bees (which would kill us, too) and they're suppressing the studies rather than changing or being dismantled, you can fully expect some awful atrocities to accompany space exploration, as well.

You're seriously going to compare killing a few bees to marooning the first generation of space colonists? Like those are even remotely similar?