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Originally posted by Marc Campbell:
Animalman and DuplicateMan, my wife gives me the same arguments all the time.
...thanks, hubby.

This isn't the first time I've been compared to someone's wife.....

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These aren't just human foibles but behavior we see in every form of life with DNA (i.e., all known life).
Every form of life....on Earth.

If I may tweak a Big Lebowski quote here....we have no(real) frame of reference. I guess there's two schools of thought here; one sees the trends of life on Earth and concludes that every species must share similar traits, and the other sees how isolated Earth is and concludes that the same rules can't be applied to different galaxies.

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It lives at the expense of other things, multiplies as far and as fast and as often as it can, and consumes resources until they're gone.
I would contend that last attribute applies only to humans.

It's not exactly a scientific reference, but I think it's apt, nevertheless: My favorite sequence in The Matrix(the original) was the interrogation between Agent Smith and Morpheus, where Smith gives his theory of humanity's true classification. Unlike other animals, humans don't adapt to their surroundings. They assume control of them, change them, warp them, suck the resources around them dry, then move on. Like a virus.

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The proposition of space travel involves a huge expenditure of resources no matter how you slice it, and biological creatures don't expend resources without expecting a return.
Possibly, but, again, we're assuming the un-assumable. We don't know how much of expenditure it would be for beings of such advanced technology.

I'll remain the idealist.

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Look, I'm all for taking the U.S. military budget and giving it to NASA. That we aren't already on the moon and Mars and sending drillers to Europa to categorize the biolumisescent alien jellyfishes is a deep embarrassment to the Carl Sagan in me. But the most fit in our society would rather go after more practical rewards with more immediate benefits.
Heh, I was just about to make a Carl Sagan joke.