The search for meaning, for answering fundamental questions and for furthering scientific progress has a value, to blame the search for aliens for the state of the world is misguided. Perhaps there are other cuts we could make that would have a bigger impact... "Total world military expenditure rose to $1822 billion in 2018" https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2019/world-militar...
I am not blaming the "state of the world" I am saying it's pure waste to spend money on researching fantasy projects.
Military spending is a strawman whataboutism.
It's not about "cuts" it's about sanity. There are no aliens, no proof of aliens, nothing. These programs should not have been started in the first place.
If these peoples lives are so devoid of meaning that they have to spend their lives researching fantasies, they should fund in themselves instead of taking tax payer money for it.
I think military spending is a fair comparison topic even if not directly addressing your point, it's often argued that it's military/space progress that trickles down into improvements for 'the rest of us', though I have my doubts about that nonetheless it provides an incentive beyond the obvious subject being addressed. I take issue with 'fantasy projects', that's what science is, to distill fact from fantasy, it the fantasy in the first instance that inspires the research that provides the answer, if you're essentially saying that we have gathered enough contrary evidence and should now abandon the search and focus on home, well, I can certainly see that perspective and have felt that way at times, but to argue that because we don't know something, we should not waste money finding out the details, well, I think the Wright brothers efforts would have been dismissed as fantasy at the time, glad it did not dissuade them.
Total world expenditure on science projects of any kind at all is downright negligible compared to biggest expenses, such as military, as pointed out...Life conditions, solutions to pollution, most harming diseases etc, could all be fairly easily solved in rather short timespans of 5-20 years probably. The thing that's missing is not the money, it's the humanity's collective consciousness, maturity and responsibility - instead of all I mentioned above, we're still very much busy throwing feces at each other over imaginary borders, or deadly fairytales called religions, and trying to earn more than our peers, so we can buy a shinier thing they will envy.
I agree, we shouldn't be in any of the wars we are in today. But that is like saying we shouldn't try to reign in pork barrel politics because there is so much spent on war. Or we shouldn't try to save on maintenance, software, labor, etc... you name it "because we spend so much on war".
"Ancient explorers should never have ventured on ships to find new lands, for the cost of that could have been used in their countries to better serve the poor" /s
If you're taking about the European explorers - they didn't - they went looking for new trade routes to lands they already knew about. It was about commerce, not exploration. Only after someone "hit it big" (Columbus) did others follow because they realized the commercial opportunities of finding "new" places.
The Polynesians sailing into the unknown Pacific is a different case, but that was most likely (based on what I've read) a situation of "the poor" venturing out to find new lands for themselves, not well funded expeditions paid for by existing kings.
There are no aliens. With the money wasted on looking for aliens we could have saved millions of lives with clean water, shelter, food and education.
Scientists need to stop deluding themselves and tricking congress into funding pet projects that are so far fetched they border on fraud.