>I've never understood the position that the greatest scientific question is whether or not we're alone in the universe. That is an odd thing. The one that I'

>I've never understood the position that the greatest scientific question is whether or not we're alone in the universe. That is an odd thing. The one that I'm curious about is the drum-banging for spotting (probably highly simple) lifeforms on places like Mars. Given the ability of rocks to hop planets, it's a totally reasonable thing to find I think as you don't even need from-scratch bootstrapping. I expect it's partly a product of PR departments as you have to keep the public engaged, not unlike the occasional production of aesthetically pleasing images. It seems to me that it's enough to push for off-planet permanent human settlement. Heck, given the long-term possibilities of AI and von Neumann probes, distance isn't even an unassailable problem, you just have to change your time horizons.