I honestly have no objections to space colonization but I feel like what's never brought up in these conversations is the fact that sending 500 people to mine rocks on mars isn't going to fix any of our problems at home. I don't want to be a buzzkill but I really feel the need to reiterate the question: "What are we gaining by doing this?". I feel like a lot of my lib friends I know act like space minerals is going to reinvigorate the world's mining industry by literally expanding the potential areas for mineral extraction but I think what's ignored is the underlying statement to that which is "More minerals will help solve society's problems" which I just don't think is true

In a similar vein, I think a lot about GMOs being good or bad and ultimately what I think is that they're the answer to the wrong question. At the end of the day, GMO crops are about increasing agricultural output but greater agricultural output won't solve any of our problems with modern agriculture, and in many ways, only exacerbates problems and reinforces the very system that creates that problem in the first place. The globe easily has enough food to feed everyone but it doesn't. The vast majority of it goes to western nations that end up wasting about half of it anyway, meanwhile, the people of the global south struggle to afford food as it's being shipped off to the west. Growing more food isn't going to solve that issue, it's just going to line the pockets of some Cargill board member