For the first time in human existence we are no longer hunters and gatherers and venting even the wheel changed the course of history but still that's sort of knowledge could be lost as it has been lost before today's difference is manufactured technology on a massive scale and the instant distribution of knowledge across the "Civilized" parts of the world now one of our greatest assets can be exploited the brilliant child born in the wrong place is not subject to plow the field but now has an opportunity to study and investigate any knowledge that is already known and speculate on what might be never before in the history of man has man been able to ask a question and simply get an answer by Googling it we have all become instant geniuses the point here is the more we know the less we speculate thus less power given to The God Who has been made up in the time that it was. For example I one point we thought it God in his Chariot drag the sun across the sky everyday now we are taking what we know of the Sun and building Fusion reactors across the world Germany has the high hope so I believe in succeeding but the idea here is that a fusion reaction is not the mystery it is not a god and his chariot it is chemistry and mathematics so through knowledge we killed the sun god what God is next you may wander well the Sun God was easy he was only the goddess son we had but to master the sun to kill him now people say the gods are gods of everything so now we must learn everything to kill the gods of everything this may seem impossible to us but 200 years ago everything we know now would have been unfathomable to them in their time we would have been considered God's to them because God's are made by man through the questions they can't answer if you want to kill a God answer a question

@Andrew8484 Wow Andrew you need to start a new paragraph now and then.

I agree that we have reached certain tipping points that haven't been seen before in terms of knowledge, understanding, and tech ... if not always in wisdom. I take a good deal of hope in that too, but it cuts both ways.

A few thoughts: Immortality or even viable life extension would be the start of a great population crisis. Imagine a world where suddenly people stopped dying -- people won't suddenly stop having babies, so the world population shoots up. It will turn out to be a disaster.

The craft for interstellar or even just interplanetary space travel will be so expensive it will be an escape from earth for only a few. Think of how expensive a nuclear submarine is, which is the nearest thing we have to an actual space ship.

There is no sign of the technology we need to propel large vessels in space. For example anti-gravity would be a good start. Except that we don't even know yet how gravity works.

It’s still all a long way out. We need to solve the problems here on Earth.

@Denker Actually birth rates drop in response to a number of things (education levels, economic influences) and I strongly suspect they would drop in response to immortality. What would be the rush to have children if you can have them whenever you please?

Children are a buzz-kill, so people won't have them on a whim and they won't have a "ticking biological clock" in the mix overriding their better judgment.

Remember that in the 1970s there were dystopian predictions for population growth that should have consumed us by now, and haven't.

I don't deny that biological immortality will be uncharted territory but society is a complex system, and complex systems are remarkably resilient. It isn't so simple as linear projections from current trends.

In my view anything that reduces human suffering and increases options and flexibility is not to be feared.

While I agree in principle that we "need to solve problems on earth first", space exploration is hardly the cause or the exacerbation of those problems. There is no shortage of $$ to fix the problems, and not even any shortage of knowledge. There is just a shortage of will and discipline and difficulties with delayed gratification. The US health care system is a prime example. It's by FAR the least cost effective. We could cut poverty massively AND fund a space program, and then some, by fixing that ONE problem. Indeed, some other countries have gone a long way in that direction already. Another example is mass incarceration for trivial crimes, disproportionately for minorities. Fixing that one problem even halfway would not be difficult conceptually. It's just willful ignorance and religious dogma holding us back.

In light of that, spending 1% of the GDP would restore the US space program for example to kick-ass levels of effectiveness and would move the human enterprise forward. It would be easy to cut 3% from the GDP at the same time just in terms of waste and spend it on the poor, but ... again ... lack of will. However ... one can plausibly argue that technological knock-on innovations may well put that much right back into the economy.

Artificial gravity would stop the bone decay and muscle loss and manipulation of gravity waves could easily Propel us through space fast enough to reach other solar systems as far as other dimensional planes the only theoretical physics that allows for this is the theory that's a big bang was initiated when two separate universes touched for an instant. I don't subscribe to this Theory but I will say extra-dimensional playing seems a lot harder than artificial gravity in gravity wave manipulation

@Andrew8484 Artificial gravity, to be truly like the real thing, would require very large space habitats. Then we'd have to solve the problem of radiation exposure over time, and make such habitats lavish enough to not be a hardscrabble existence, to meet the long-term psychological needs of the species. These things are all doable but will take some time.