I think it depends on what one wants to get out of the research. If the goal is a commercially realizable product on a shortish time horizon (say < 50 years), then cosmology may not be the best approach. But the justification for cosmology and much of astrophysics is typically that it is a probe of fundamental science and the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake. In which case whether we can ever travel to other planets or galaxies is moot, since it's the physical understanding and knowledge that's the goal.
Many before me have used the example of relativity, which when proposed, seemed to have little practical value. But GPS wouldn't work without relativistic corrections. 100-120 years ago one could've made a similar statement about fundamental physics and work on relativity. But if we'd abandoned it because of a lack of immediate relevance then we wouldn't have workable GPS today. The benefits of fundamental research (in many areas, not just astrophysics) are often quite difficult to forecast.
FTL requires numerous things to be true about our universe, that all signs say are not.
If we're in a physics simulation, we don't experience at the rate that the simulation is processed. One "tick" of the simulation could be processed in one second of the host universe, or one hour: and we wouldn't feel the difference. We are processed at the same tickrate as the rest of the universe, so we experience the passage of time at the same rate that the simulation flows.
The speed of light isn't just the speed of light, it's the speed of causality. It just so happens that light moves pretty well at that "speed limit" (in a vacuum). We could ask our computational hosts to increase or decrease c, and we still wouldn't be able to travel any faster than it.
Would probably be a heck of a refactor to get it working without bugs though.
> What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that?
Take a look at this video by PBS Space Time on the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVuCEs8Ydo
You may need to go down the rabbit hole and watch the earlier videos on relativity and related topics.
Here, I found a copy: https://emperybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Greg-Egan...
Leaving SciFi aside, our communication technology will be up to the task of relaying information comparatively quickly (light speed or faster), and parallel societies could be built in neighboring solar systems.
What we know of this reality is so limiting compared to what we can imagine.
Good dreams. Many of us have them.
I also like to dream the knowable remains much larger than the currently understood too.
This is actually a central theme of the Zones of Thought novels by Vernon Vinge where a character in the far future describes our current time as the "Age of Failed Dreams" (GAI, nanotech etc.) - turns out that he is wrong but for rather neat reasons....
The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey;
The Commonwealth and Void trilogies by Peter F. Hamilton, and the Night’s Dawn trilogy also by Peter F. Hamilton;
The Dune saga by Frank Herbert.
I think I liked it in the end, though not as much as his other books, but can absolutely understand people would dislike it.
It's the culture with more detailed worlds and villains.
I don't think measuring progress is tivial enough to make that assumption. It's also unfair to blame a fascination with deep space for any slower progress, things are more complicated than that.
Getting humans onto anther planet asap is one of the most important things one can pursuit for humanity. The earth is a giant single point of failure
if we get FTL, we'll be able to pick up that research before we left off ...
Well, at least they're not making people click ads ...
or observe civilizations broadcasting knowledge in a loop: motivation? perhaps the faster they can get others up to speed, the faster others might contribute knowledge back which may some day save their civilization.
Cosmology involves distances that are so great that it seems like it's pouring a whole bunch of smart people's efforts down the drain in an ultimately futile waste of brain power that will never amount to anything much at all. Besides, when we get faster than light travel we can just pick up exoplanet research where we left off and it will actually be practical and probably far more efficient with the computers and such we will have developed by then.