Why colonize? Because it appears to be a big empty Universe - this Solar System anyway. Right now we've got all our eggs in this Earth basket, and it's just a matter of time before we kill ourselves, or run out of the natural materials that might make spaceflight possible.
Wouldn't it be a shame if during the lifetime of the Universe, life only arose once, stuck around for a few billion years here on Earth, and then was destroyed when the Sun went supernova.
Until we get actual confirmation that there's a great big galactic civilization out there doing the hard work of spreading life across the galaxy, I think we need to take it upon ourselves.
We need to assume there's no life until we find evidence otherwise.
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Fraser Cain
Publisher
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