Gotcha. Can't win, don't try.
-Bart Simpson

*If you measure such attitudes on a pessimism/optimism scale, with Eeyore as zero and Polyanna at ten, this outlook scores eleven*

Antonios actually reminded me of one of the local kids at school,
many years ago now.

The teacher asked kids what they intended to become and one particular
kid said he planned to be an astronaut. So the teacher picked
him up by his pants and shirt, flew him around the room in a circle
and suggested that this was the closest he would ever come to
becoming an astronaut :)

With hindsight it turns out that the teacher was correct and I guess
the moral of the story is that dreaming is great, but it pays to
have plan B ready.

If we do ever happen to be able to travel to other habitable
planets, well great, but for now lets just get things on this
planet right, in case Antonio's dreams are as accurate as the
schoolkid.

Yabby, Pericles
Colonization of the Moon
The Lunar outpost will be an inhabited facility on the surface of the Moon which NASA currently plans to construct over the five years between 2019 and 2024. The United States Congress has directed that the U.S. portion, "shall be designated the Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_outpost_(NASA)

Colonization of Mars
Mars is considered by most scientists, including Stephen Hawking,as the ideal planet for future colonization and renewal of life.
A trip to Mars requires approximately nine months in space. Modified transfer trajectories that cut the travel time down to seven or six months.
Mars appears to have significant quantities of all the elements necessary to support Terran-based life.
Mars already has communications satellites,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars#Getting_there

Space colonization

the goal isn't just scientific exploration ... it's also about extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system as we go forward in time ... In the long run a single-planet species will not survive ... If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets. Now, today the technology is such that this is barely conceivable. We're in the infancy of it. ... I'm talking about that one day, I don't know when that day is, but there will be more human beings who live off the Earth than on it. We may well have people living on the moon. We may have people living on the moons of Jupiter and other planets. We may have people making habitats on asteroids ... I know that humans will colonize the solar system and one day go beyond. – Michael D. Griffin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization

Space Settlements
spreading life throughout the solar system

"Humanity has the power to fill outer space with life. Today our solar system is filled with plasma, gas, dust, rock, and radiation -- but very little life; just a thin film around the third rock from the Sun. We can change that. In the 1970's Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill with the help of NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford University showed that we can build giant orbiting spaceships and live in them.
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/

Space Settlement Nexus
The people of Earth have both the knowledge and resources to colonize space."
That was the stated conclusion of this NASA-sponsored study — in 1975! There are two things you need to know about space settlement:
We can do it, starting now.
A future with space settlements is vastly better than one without them.

A Better Future
There are many reasons to move into space: growth, wealth, energy, survival, spiritual development, knowledge, diversity, to solve serious Earthly problems, to fulfill a sense of destiny and responsibility, and even to have fun. All of these boil down to a simple fact: A future with space settlement is vastly better than one without it.
The largest asteroid, Ceres, has enough material to build orbital space settlements with a total living area well over a hundred times the land area of the Earth.

http://www.nss.org/settlement/

Genetic Engineering and Space Exploration
And despite all the caveats I listed, I think we will venture to the stars — for knowledge, for glory, but above all, because we thirst to know what is behind the next bend in the path. Compared to the oceans that we and our inheritors will navigate, our efforts until now are like the launching of paper boats in a bird fountain.
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/andreadis20070429/

Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Ah Antonios, the people working in space research will love you lol.

All that money and job security pouring their way, if you have
any say!

I'll tell you what. You show me a planet where its a pleasant
20-30 degrees, where there is all the oxygen that I need and want to
breathe, where I can go swimming in the lakes and rivers,
grow my own food, admire the marvels of many other species
and the beauty of nature, then I am interested.

Meantime if you don't, its high time we paid just a little
attention to the one planet that we have, which is a lovely
place to live, provided that we humans don't stuff it up
completely. As the population rises, chances of us stuffing
it up completely, continue to grow. That is the reality right
now.

Bless your cotton socks, Antonios. It must be a buzz having that much optimism.

But please note, being an optimist has its downside too. Life really does not, in fact, correspond in any way to your dream, but is as it always has been - nasty, brutish and short. And the disappointment to discover this, as all sane people eventually do, can occasionally cause severe psychological damage.

A friend of mine pointed out to me, many years ago, that the only completely, totally happy people on this planet are those who have no idea what is going on.

There's no way I'm going to burst your bubble with facts, Antonios, because you have wishful thinking on your side. But time, unfortunately, is not.

Think of it as a strightforward choice. Make life on earth bearable and sustainable. Or put the same effort into colonizing space. Both will take an enormous effort, financially and politically.

The first is in our control. The second has so many possibilities for failure - not of will, but of achievement - that human nature will simply not permit it a guernsey.

(And while we're thinking about it, do you seriously believe that the quality of life in "giant orbiting spaceships" is worth striving for?)

You will never be able to prove me wrong, nor will I ever be able to prove you wrong. And of course, there's absolutely no problem with dreaming, if it makes you happy.

Just don't build your life on dreams, when there's so much delight to be had in real life.