Scientists that had their lives dedicated to the study of climate and consequences still getting surprised by some of the newly discovered consequences of global warming. Tinkering with a very complex system that you don't understand could have even worse or more urgent consequences than the original problem you were trying to solve. And if you make big mistakes there you not only lose the future of mankind, but also all the past.
Whats wrong with solving it in the plain, simple, ordered and pretty studied solution of diminishing our influence in the change?
The one that was banned for most of the world by the US government?
Don't tell your left hand what your right hand does.
Maybe they should be aware of how much they got back from the investment. Just going to orbit, not landing elsewhere, the impact on everyone's life is all around, from weather/climate prediction to GPSs on phones. And maybe some activities that would have even more impact on our everyday life (zero-g manufacturing/alloys made from captured asteroids?) need more funds to be able to be done. And if well things in the space could give obvious returns, reaching other planets could get us unexpected yet (or only suspected) benefits.
Landing elsewhere and planting a flag is nice as a symbol, but things that have economic return may sustain a complex space program a bit better.
Of course, there are things that may end having infinite ROI, if by standing there we could avoid the end of mankind (detecting threats and avoiding them, or at least having a backup copy elsewhere). Delaying it till is too late will be much more expensive than doing it now.
I will wait till the Eschaton teleports me to my destination with a couple of cornucopia machines.
SF also extrapolated an AI singularity and it may not be so technologically feasible.
Thats the start of the problem. People control the software. Like with guns, is people that is the one that kills, abuse, take advantage or use it for their own ends, giving them more tools to control our life is letting not only the saint, pure and morally perfect and responsible ones to do so, but all of them, at all levels. People is not perfect, either the one that decides what the software should do, the ones that actually does that, or the ones that in the end have the capabilities to control them, and in that way, you. You know how police can behave already, give them and people in higher more control, and that won't stop them to misbehave, just give them new ways to do it, with more broad impact and the possibility of doing it without consequences nor leaving a trace.
And if not bad enough the people with their own interests, biases and corruption in the "right" side of the controlling that software, it is not perfect, and you have vulnerabilities, design faults, leaks and plain idiocy at the hour of deciding who can control that software that could let not authorized people to do that control too. And they can do pretty bad misuses too.
And you are in the center of it, not knowing, not having a warning, not having any possibility of control, In some moment shit will happen because of this and you will be dead, without savings or property, working as a slave or maybe worse consequences. And maybe, not even realizing that all of that already happened.
"Show business is just like high school, except you get paid." - Martin Mull