I Have A Dream: Humanities Salvation Lies in the Stars

For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of exploring the heavens above. Wondered how many other intelligent races lie among the stars that twinkle overhead each and every night. Imagined thousands of other worlds where people where looking up at the stars and wondering if they where alone in the universe. Now some might call me a dreamer and to them I say "dayum skippy". It has always been the dreamers who have had the largest impact on society and mankinds evolution; and it will be the dreamers who save humanity from the course of destruction we are currently spiraling down.

You see every day on this planet people start fighting about more and more things. We are trying our damnedest to destroy ourselves and our planet. We pollute the air, water and soil with all manners of toxins. Our food (if you can even call it that) is Genetically Modified, saturated with poisons (fertilizers, bug killers, etc.) and processed with all kinds of fillers and artificial additives. Add to that the Black Lives Matter, ISIS, El Shebab, Al Qaeda, New Black Panthers, etc all trying to instill racial and religious fighting upon the world and we are flat doomed as a planet unless something drastic happens and soon.

Which is where I come in, or at least my idea (vision) for the future of humanity. There are several ways we can unite the planet. It could be done by force at the expense of millions of lives, but that would undoubtedly lead to generations of people feeling resentment and hatred. The other option is to eliminate the underlying causes that lead the aforementioned groups to develop the hatred the are pushing onto the world. The simple fact of the matter is that ALL of these Terrorist Groups and Hate Groups originate from Socio-Economic Depressed Areas. Meaning either they are socially depressed (think inner city slums with no hope of escape for most) or economically depressed (no jobs, no safe food/water, no homes, etc). If we unite as a people and take responsibility for the needs of each other it will only take a few years to ensure that every single person on Earth has: a Home, Good/Safe Water and Food, reliable electricity and sewage, access to healthcare, employment and education. Within 10-20 years the world would become a peaceful place united as humans and would be able to work together to fulfill my dream.

You see the only way to truly ensure that humanity survives (indefinitely) is to expand beyond this planet as rapidly as we can. There is no way of knowing when a Hale-Bop sized comet will come spiraling into Earth and destroy almost all life on this planet; whilst thrusting the Earth into another ice-age that lasts for tens of thousands of years. Nor is there any way of knowing for certain that we won't get invaded by a hostile alien race hell bent on taking our planet from us. Just like there is no way of knowing for certain that our sun won't decide to fizzle out or worse go Super-Nova and fry Earth in the process. However, by humanity Uniting together and working to expand our knowledge and reach into the Universe we can ensure that no matter what happens to Earth, humanity will continue.

We have the technology and resources right now to:
A.) Build generation ships that could reach Alpha-Centauri (our closest celestial neighbor) in less than 1 lifetime. We are close to developing propulsion systems that could get such a ship to Alpha-Centauri in 20 years or less.
B.) Build mining ships capable of reaching the Kuiper Belt, filling up with mined resources and returning to Earth every 10 years or so. With the advanced propulsion systems mentioned above that time would be reduced to a few years.
C.) Build permanent manned colonies on Earth's Moon, Mars, various Space Stations (in Earth Orbit and Beyond) and possibly other locations throughout our own solar system.
D.) Build massive solar power arrays in deep space and wireless transmit the power to any of the Space Stations, Colonies or Earth as needed.

All the technology and resources are already available to accomplish the goals above, the only thing keeping us from achieving them is lack of cooperation. If the planet would quit fighting and work together we could have millions of people living in Space or on other Celestial Bodies within a few decades. In fact we could have permanent manned colonies in other Solar Systems in a few decades if we really wanted to. Don't believe me, look at the Space Race between the USA and USSR in the 60's. In less than 5 years we (the USA) went from no Space Program (or rockets to speak of) to putting man on the moon multiple times. Now to put that in perspective, your cellphone today has thousands of times the computing power that sent man to the moon. In fact we already have space ships capable of reaching the moon and back and they are Civilian craft (SpaceShip2). We just need to come together, stop killing and fighting with each other and do it. Hell if worse came to worse the groups mentioned above could find themselves a new home and never have to deal with anyone else again.