I'd like to preface by saying that I'm not insensitive to concerns about contamination and other effects that the presence of humans or human artifacts might have on other planets. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, honestly.
But the conclusion I've come to is that, ultimately, these concerns are akin to concerns about human effects on Earth. Enlightened self-interest says that it makes sense to be as careful with our resources as possible. But an attitude that poo-poos humanity utterly might lead one to the conclusion that we are a scourge, and that these places would be better off without us at all.
Well, screw that. We might
be a scourge, but we're
my scourge - all of the people I love or otherwise care about, our culture, our industry, all of it, are part of that scourge, and I'm not apologetic about them or me
existing. Or trying to survive.
We have finite resources on this planet. We *have* to go out there. Not only that, but us doing so is ultimately good for not only us, but for the survival of the life forms that we've made dependent on our existence (a lot of domesticated animals and to a lesser extent domesticated plants). And, at least for a while (after all, even the universe is finite), for all of the other life on Earth, if we can give them a bit of breathing room by taking our mess out to the stars.
As I said, enlightened self-interest means we should do so
carefully - it'd be a shame if we wiped out something really useful (like an organism with a natural cure for cancer) by being careless, and obviously a horrible thing if we accidentally wiped out something we didn't realize was self-aware, and a pity even if we just accidentally removed anything completely from the wonder and diversity of the universe.
But we have a right to BE, and part of being us, for better or worse, is expansion.
And if FTL travel turns out to be possible (I'm still doubtful, but we - humanity, probably not me - will see), then all of our concerns might be mooted, anyway, and it's all simply a race to see whether it's us *or some other intelligent life* that tampers with everything. In which case, I'd rather it be us. Sorry if that's selfish. But also, not sorry.
