I strongly agree that we need to focus on our own planet, for what we’re doing to our (currently only) viable place to live is frankly insane.

That being said, it is a mistake to assume that “science-fictiony” ideas and concepts are impossible, that the pursuit of such are somehow grand-scale wastes of time and effort.

People once thought flight was impossible, until it wasn’t. The very idea of regular people like you and me to fly across half the planet in less than a day was nonsense.

Before WWII, the idea of radar was science fiction — “what do you mean, that I can see something fifty miles away while sitting in a shack near the cliffs of Dover watching a cathode-ray tube-powered screen? Are you mad?”

Before the 1950’s, the idea of worldwide networks was a dream shared by a bare handful of visionaries. “What utter foolishness is this? He’s claiming that when we’re old, we’ll be able to have real-time face-to-face video conversations with family members almost anywhere else on the planet, and we’ll be doing it on devices we can fit in our pants pockets? And it will be almost free to do so? This idiot belongs in an insane asylum!”

(on a side note, I remember calling my then-soon-to-be-ex-wife in Washington state from Singapore, paying $22/minute for the call, and being grateful and amazed that technology had advanced that far. Maybe I’m just getting old.)

And then there’s that iPad lookalike on the space station in 2001:

What’s more, space exploration isn’t just about aliens — it’s also about protecting our planet. Or do you not remember Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that struck Jupiter?

If that comet had struck Earth, it would have been an extinction event, perhaps even worse than the asteroid that struck near what is today called the Yucatan peninsula and killed off the dinosaurs. In fact, TODAY is the only time in our planet’s history that a species can detect and possibly avert a spaceborne threat…

…and I think it would be accurate to say this would have been impossible without dreamers like, say, Arthur C. Clarke, who is but one of the many astrophysicists and other scientists who used their skill and knowledge not only for the advancement of humanity, but through their writings in the science fiction genre inspired untold legions of other dreamers to actually do that which most think is impossible. Scratch a science fiction writer, and you’re likely to find a real-world PhD.-level scientist.

So will we ever have interstellar travel? I don’t know, and neither can you. It seems unlikely, but humanity has demonstrated a habit of doing what the best-and-brightest of previous generations thought impossible.

And will we meet aliens? I can’t know, and neither can you.

Don’t get me wrong — I will be not at all surprised if we don’t meet aliens in my lifetime. In fact, I think it is highly unlikely. But “never” is a word that I think is cheapened by how quickly and nonchalantly it is used.