Setting aside all the intangible benefits such as answering why we are here and providing inspiration to generations there are tons of short and long term benefits.

In the short/medium term, research is so much about solving problems and your solutions having unexpected applications in other areas. A lot of our minituarization in tech happened because we needed things smaller and lighter to lift into space, think things like your smart phone camera or laptops. Also things like cordless tools and even memory foam were originally developed for their application in space travel.

In the long term, let’s take a look back, what if we had the same stance when we looked at the ocean, and thought why its even necessary to figure out how to navigate the waters. For our species to propagate or even survive, we need to expand. Right now we are one decently sized asteroid from extinction, but if one day we figured out how to expand to multiple worlds, then we become a heck of a lot of more resilient.

Yeah but this is socialized risk (political influence) for personal gain (access to the apps)

A vast majority of the public do not see themselves as vulnerable to propaganda targeted at themselves, or at least they dont see it happen in real time. So the risk is abstract to them at best but more likely seen as non-existent, while the gain is immediate and concrete.

No for real love this name, just call it YADA, though you might get a cease and desist from seinfield.

At work one of our application names is “just another generator of…” and we just call it jag

I credit SRE with starting my hiking hobby. Never liked being in nature until I was forced to sit in front of a computer screen for 40-60 hours a week and some weekends.

Now I’ve been to a dozen national parks, about as much state parks and one of the few joys I get is planning the next outing.