A random thought about the space program

The Universe: Congratulations, humans! You have evolved! You use tools and forge things out of metal and soon will invent even more wondrous things, like the internet and that weird nacho "cheese" that they put on your chips at the movie theater! Well done!

Humanity: Yeah, but I kind of feel like something's missing. We still haven't done everything we can with the technology we have.

The Universe: Well, you've pretty much been everywhere there is to be. You've explored pretty much all of all seven continents. You've been to the south pole. You've been to the north pole. You've even, however briefly, descended to the very deepest depths of the ocean! What more is there to explore?

Humanity: *looks up at the heavens* Y'know, I've always wondered what it's like up there.

The Universe: Don't be silly, humanity! Space is incompatible with life. There is, for starters, a fundamental force that effectively pins you to land, making it quite hard to go up. And even if you could, there is a distinct lack of things like air and water and everything else up there, which present some significant obstacles to squishy little things like you.

Humanity: *thinks for a moment, then shrugs* Let's get building, boys.

Humanity proceeds to build a series of rockets that are strong enough to overcome a fundamental force of the universe, yet gentle enough to safely carry humans, and then goes and does a couple loops around the planet.

The Universe: Well done. I'm impressed.

Humanity: Oh, just you wait. *lands on the moon*

The Universe: Very nice, guys.

Humanity: And how about this? *shoots several probes off in various directions, receives data for thirty some years* And this? *builds robots, sends robots to Mars* *builds another robot and sends it to the surface of Venus*launches satellites to predict weather* *launches satellites so someone can watch TV broadcast from the other side of the planet* *launches satellites that can take pictures of your license plate*

The Universe: Sweet.

Humanity: *builds manned space stations* *puts up some satellites so that anyone can precisely pinpoint exactly where on earth they are* *builds reusable spaceships to ferry supplies and people back and forth* How 'bout your fundamental forces now, Universe?

The Universe: I stand corrected, guys. You all are pretty good at finding new frontiers to explore.

Humanity: *looks at thirty years of data from Voyager 2, six years of data from two Mars rovers, and twenty years of pictures from the Hubble telescope* Man, this is expensive and boring. Let's go drill for oil! *abandons manned space exploration*

The Universe: ...what the hell?