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The only viable alternative is violence, and most of us aren't especially thrilled by this perspective either, so cynicism is all we've left…

It isn't necessarily defeatist. We could expect human nature to prevail despite our best efforts to curb it, and use that expectation to be prepared with mitigations and backup plans.

We don't even take particularly good care of the parts of the earth we live in and directly need to survive, why are we going to get it right in a remote and hostile environment like that?

Sure, I'm all for trying, but I don't hold out a ton of hope. I'd love to be wrong.