Relevant quote
Feb. 1st, 2003 10:52 pmfrom the Babylon 5 episode "Infection":
INTERVIEWER: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask
you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about
space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the
whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at
home?"
SINCLAIR: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why.
Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control,
genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every
scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a
thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go
out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and
Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of
this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."
INTERVIEWER: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask
you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about
space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the
whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at
home?"
SINCLAIR: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why.
Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control,
genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every
scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a
thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go
out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and
Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of
this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."