Space Exploration – Fan Questions | StarTalk

I tend to take a cosmic perspective on
this let me pose the question
differently there is this speck called
Earth sitting in the void of space in
orbit around an average star there are
life forms on that speck called humans
who are so sure that on that speck are
the solutions to all of their problems
on that speck that the rest of this
universe should be neglected until the
day that all their problems are solved
on that speck that’s how I view that
question we have energy problems down
here the universe has limitless supply
of energy we have people fighting wars
over resources there are asteroids that
have more gold on them than have ever
been mined in the history of the world
what is it you want to do just keep
looking down I got my problems here I’ll
solve the problems you know when I got
here this is what I’ll do exploration
comes with dangers risks but above all
else it comes with Rewards rewards of
health wealth longevity you should never
say explore here and not there she’s
never legislate what frontier gets
breached next because you don’t know
what’s on the other side of either those
frontiers you have no idea I don’t have
any idea either
a colleague of mine was an expert in
studying atomic nuclei he found out that
nuclei resonate with magnetic fields
that are placed across them he won a
Nobel Prize for that discovery later on
a medical technologist says hey wait a
minute
that little nucleus with the resonance
with the with the magnetic fan make a
machine out of that and I can identify
certain atoms inside your body that are
not the atoms of soft tissue inside your
body out of that came the magnetic
resonance imager the MRI don’t ever tell
me which direction the frontiers should
be researched and presume that you know
the answer that you want to have on the
other side of that barrier the history
of this exercise does not bear that out
you