I've always felt this kind of view seems rather bleak. Humans will only go down one of two paths. Either humans and human history will be entirely wiped out fro

I've always felt this kind of view seems rather bleak. Humans will only go down one of two paths. Either humans and human history will be entirely wiped out from the universe when Earth inevitably becomes uninhabitable, or human ingenuity will triumph and humans will be spread out all over the universe and not be just a blip in time confined to the lifespan of our solar system. Why not hope for the latter? The argument being made here, "Earth is good enough and we need to take care of it, it's crazy to think that we'll ever live anywhere outside of this solar system", is essentially, in the long term, "the human species is doomed to die out when our sun dies, and probably much sooner than that". That feels so pessimistic to me. Of course, protecting Earth is important, and probably a higher priority. But if you don't believe humans will make it off-world, then it's just delaying the inevitable. And if that's what you believe, I guess there's no point trying to convince you otherwise; it's not like any of us will be around to see that happen anyways. But if you do believe humans will survive longer than Earth, why is it "crazy" to start working on ideas to make that a reality? Even if it's not feasible, as Mayor says, "using the means we have available today", surely the path to inventing the means that do make it feasible starts from improving the tech we have today? We can work harder on taking good care of our planet while also starting to think in earnest about the plan for the survival of humankind - there are plenty of people and resources in the world, working on this doesn't necessarily substantially detract from efforts to protect Earth.