Unfortunately, projects and discussions focused on immortality, or life extension in general, do not necessarily improve the aggregate well-being of all humans. (One could argue that capitalism does improve the aggregate well-being of all, but that is a different topic.)

Across the entire planet there is unimaginable suffering everywhere one looks. Some of that suffering is obvious, while other suffering is hidden behind an illusion of prosperity. When considering how to invest finite resources, and claiming to seek a positive outcome for all, why not address the immediate problems?

Technology is knowledge of tools -- tools that provide leverage for solving (or causing) problems. As for why we have those tools, why we improve the ones we have, and why we invent new tools, aspirational goals are nice, but it seems callous to ignore applications that could significantly improve the quality of lives today; raising quality of life would also accelerate the rate of innovation.

Should we actively advance technology, and potentially spread out into space? Yes, I think we should. However, the more we spread out, the more advanced certain segments of humanity become, the more potential there is for others to be left out of the equation and relegated to the role of wasted human potential.