>>11389043It's something to enjoy while we're still here.
"progress" isn't really the right word to use, I would use "exploration" instead, because the former implies that we are progressing towards some sort of ultimate goal. That is of course a totally wrong idea of scientific inquiry which stems from a historically ill-informed and false linear view of history in which scientific knowledge can only be expanded, is uniform across the globe and ultimately views increased productivity and perpetual economic growth as an end in itself. It's a narrative which views humans as the centre of the universe and which states that the universe was given to us by God to exploit. On the other hand, "scientific exploration" implies the reality that we find ourselves in a strange world with no idea how we got here and no idea where we are going. We are not progressive towards something, we are just exploring ourselves and trying to understand the universe we find ourselves and its contents while we remain here.
It's very likely that humanity has only a couple of centuries left on this planet before the collapse of our societies and very likely the destruction of all the scientific knowledge we have accrued over the past millennia, but it was worthwhile because it allowed us to gain some limited insight into our absurd existence in this absurd universe while we were here.
