Second, a permanent Mars colony will always be dependent on the Earth for regular resupply. If Earth were to become toast, so would the colonies on Mars.
This person gets into it in more detail: https://www.quora.com/How-would-we-be-able-to-live-on-Mars?n...
Further, stating that the most salient problem for us to solve now with technology is a problem that will occur 5 billion years from now - strikes me as hubris. That _we_ must be the ones to save the Earth, as if we will have failed unless _we_ are the super heroes that save humanity for all of time.
Meanwhile, the Earth is a giant garden. Given our focuses, I don't think future generations will think of us as heroes. I don't think future generations will think of us too kindly at all.
Just having a good life.. and if so, doing good things for me, whatever scope of fellows around me (could be whole humanity), and improve anything what I can influence somehow, like the near future.
That some lifeform in a far away future may have a shot colonizing Mars? Could not be more indifferent ;)
There’s also a chance that being on Mars is exactly the right spot to be in when our sun starts to expand.
I guess I like the idea that even if we humans don’t get there, something that descends from us might. Actually, I like the idea that something a few steps up the evolutionary tree (like an alligator) will spring to life and discover the merits of language, if some cataclysm wipes us out. Or maybe reptiles in space is just my thing. The early Apollo missions were a missed opportunity to make a lizard astronaut a reality.
If there’s some other way to escape the existential dread of none of what we do mattering whatsoever, please share. It’s at least nice to imagine that one of our cells will make it from earth to mars.