I don't see how it's any different than the parent comment in terms of being flippant. Should one meet any thing that humans may strive for with "why do that if

I don't see how it's any different than the parent comment in terms of being flippant. Should one meet any thing that humans may strive for with "why do that if we haven't done X first"? Why start a new startup if you haven't solved post-scarcity society? We don't need to have a post-scarcity society before progressing science and technology by trying to and succeeding in colonizing Mars. Similarly we create plenty of technology while also not solving the post-scarcity "problem". Adding more resources or more people to solving a problem doesn't mean that it makes the problem easier or more likely to be solved. So you're creating this idea that we can't do X until we've done Y, when the truth is we can do X and Y. Strategically I think we should create an international moon base first before going to Mars, but we can do both.