OK... Serious question here: we find "life" (algae?) on one of Saturn's moons or one of Jupiter's moons. So, we spend ~$50 Billion (arguably much more) and find "life". So? Why is this important to people? There isn't one chance in (place your own word here) that we can do anything about it or even send humans there. Seriously want to know what people really think...

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dzink 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Because of statistics. If we can find life, potentially started independently or pollinated in a couple of planets close to each-other, then life is everywhere and we may be in a dark forest of intelligent or hidden native predatory beings waiting to wipe us out if we squeak or show up elsewhere. If it's not as frequent, then we can keep exploring to look for it and more human-habitable spots.

	▲	rafram 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I have a premonition that even if extraterrestrial life is discovered, and even if intelligent, hostile extraterrestrial life is somehow discovered, humans are not going to leave it alone. After all, everyone involved can just say it's inevitable! If we don't do it, someone else will.

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torben-friis an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

>So? Why is this important to people?

Because it could then tell us if it's related to us or not, potentially we could get to see how life unrelated to us looks like, how life in general is originally formed, how likely in the universe it is...

I honestly struggle to imagine how it can be considered unimportant, unless your stating position is that said life is completely unreachable to current and future tech, which I don't find likely.

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I_dream_of_Geni an hour ago | parent [-]

Maybe only possibly unimportant based upon the staggering costs involved. Is it really really worth that?? Is finding life worth $10 Trillion dollars?

	▲	booty 21 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Strictly from an economic standpoint: The $10T goes right back into the economy. That's $10T worth of STEM jobs and manufacturing and so on. Arguably, it should be spent more directly on schools and universal healthcare and so on, but $10T also creates a lot of jobs and healthcare benefits and funds public schools and so on so it's a tricky comparison to make. From a non-economic standpoint: Aside from ensuring we don't destroy this planet, what is more important than finding out if we're alone in the universe? Not much, if you ask me. (I realize finding algae on Saturn's moon doesn't definitively answer that question but it's certainly a uh... pretty big data point)
	▲	randochatter an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The $10 trillion will be spent regardless. Whether it's on luxury yachts, private islands, and political capital or health care, education, and exploring the solar system are choices.