Space is just a place.
Taking a real long-term view, it's no more ridiculous to live in the Moon, or Mars, than it was for early man to move out of Africa and settle Europe, Australia, the Himalayas, California.
Every place man has lived has been radically different from an African savannah. We get along by adapting, improvising, inventing, using technology.
This is not to discount the hazards, dangers, and exceptionally different environment found outside our atmosphere.
But it's time for a real, actual Space Age. We'll make it up as we go along, same as we always have.
It may appear to be that way from one post. I don't.
The health of astronauts coming back from the ISS has deteriorated.
The short-term affects of micro-gravity appear to be un-good, I agree.
Please note I was speaking of settling places with gravity. About that we simply don't know, yet.
Psychologically, they aren't topfit either.
If you spent six months living in an industrial facility the size of a winnebago you'd be a little off, too.
My expectations of 'the future' are that people will live in bodies with gravity - the moon, Mars. Off-planet facilities will be what off-shore oil platforms are today: a place to work, and live short-term, for high pay. Then you go home to the wife and kids.
Once off Earth colonization takes off that distinction will seem less and less significant over time.
...we really need to get the hell out of here. In 1 billion years the Earth will be a dead planet, because the Sun keeps changing. And a dinosaur-killing boulder will probably hit us much sooner than that.
Eggs in one basket, etc.
Preacher > Choir
I think if you recognize the advantages and disadvantages of both you could effectively use either of them. Of course doing that might not be considered "humane" by our current standards.
I think the real hope is waiting for hardware to master the "fixing itself" problem (preferably by conquering replication, which would also largely fix the expense problem). Little need to drag along the wetware at that point though.
(dredmorbius: I am in fact referring to humans. Using microbial life is an interesting idea in its own right however.)
Sentient wetware tends to bring along baggage of requesting rights and such, which can be expensive to provision.
Hardware can both survive and function in a wide range of extreme environments.
I like the more agile approach. Release early, iterate often.