I just sometimes wonder whether our stupidity, greed, self-destructiveness or laziness will put a stop to it.

All of the great exploring civilizations eventually tired of it. The Chinese gave up in the 1300s, they figured they already had everything they needed. The Portuguese gave up in the 1400s, and the Spanish in the 1500s. The Greeks and Romans were successful--for a time. Even the Brits had a world-wide empire, but it only lasted a couple of centuries. Th Arabs, the Ottomans, the Japanese, even the USA tried the Empire game, as did most of the major European powers. They all gave up as soon as they realized it cost more to conquer than any plunder you could bring home. Exploration may yield profits for a few who go out there, but most lose their shirt, as do the investors

As the distances get bigger, the costs go up, and the resources available to the colonial powers get used up. The Pacific Basin was conquered by stone age people-family and tribal groups-in sailing canoes made from the meager resources found on coral atolls. Europeans used sailing rigs, rudder designs and magnetic compasses developed by the Chinese, but only Mercantilism and Capitalism could provide the funding, and they lost interest as soon as the profits dried up. Space exploration will require massive government expenditures, and democracies will soon tire of pouring money into exploration that may not yield a benefit for centuries. As for non-democratic regimes, all they want is power, they will spend their resources on consolidating their gains, not risking them on new ones.

We tend to think of Man, with a captial "M", as striving ever onward and upward, and we tend to remember and honor the great explorations of the past. Its the Ad Astra myth. But most people stay in one place for as long as they can, and usually move on only when they either have no other choice, or want to rip off someone elses stash.

Look at the greatest exploration of all, the Golden Age of 15th and 16th centuries: millions of indigenous peoples died or were enslaved--and for what? So Europeans could steal their gold or use their land to grow dope (sugar, coffee, tobacco, tea).

No, we don't have an exploration in our DNA. We have a greed gene.