Ha!

And it was just a glorified free fall near the edge of space, which only lasted a few minutes.
(though I admit, it looked slightly awesome the way they showed it)

Eh, if it's not us it'll be the zorgthon from the krab nebula.....better us than them, I think. ;)
(jokes aside, I like space exploration stuff, so more of that is usually more a plus than a minus to me....though in this case I wish it were more practical things than billionaires and their buddies floating around in the sky for a bit)

Branson promoting his new flight is just as much 'science' as Dyson explaining how the newest hoover works.

Branson and Bezos are dicks to be sure, but what they have achieved is glorious. Not wishing to take anything away from Branson's engineering team, but Bezos is just in another class. A proper rocket launch and an apogee of 105Km (5Km above the 'edge of space'), and a proper 5G re-entry. Absolutely the rocket-man experience, the ride of a lifetime.

Branson is a high-flyer, but Bezos is an astronaut.

Loved that Bezos gave Wally Funk a ticket. She finally got her astronaut wings. Go Wally!

Well, there are the two viewpoints isn’t there.
There is the optimistic, exploring the universe, understanding the mysteries, providing a better living for the wolds, helping anything we come across. We will call this the Star Trek viewpoint.
Then there is the opposite, the looking upon the vast crawling infestation of humanity rapidly eating its way through the host planet, greedily eyeing the stars for what they can get from them.
My viewpoint is that the second viewpoint is probably the nearest to how bad it would be, the Star Trek one is a complete pipe dream.
Well, it was my fault, I went into it thinking it would be more like nasa videos.

Thanks for the laugh.

I also want a mechanical body and live for as long as I can afford to repair my artificial body. At least 999 years of life!

Not a problem, if the robot is programmed in base 3 ;-)

Good for you if you don't mind being replaced and become irrelevant.

But without all the emotions, feelings and associated thoughts of being in a human body, would mechanical you even be the same person?

If it helps pave the way for "mankind" to reach further and do more in space, than yeah....it is something. Also kudos to both branson and bezos for having the heuvos to go on the maiden flights(when the bugs are likely still being ironed out and etc).

-

Well seeing as you seem to hold a more nihilistic/pessimistic view on things(generally speaking), I can see why you'd lean towards that being the most likely outcome. Me? I'm gonna remain cautiously optimistic and hope for the best.

Of course that's not to say that humans won't exploit space...some most certainly will...but I don't think humanity's expansion into space(if it happens) will be 100% negative.

Side note/musing: space is mainly just a bunch of floating rocks....likely barren of life. Barring any alien ecosystems(flora/fauna) which should be preserved, I don't see the problem with using some of those said resources.
(also it's not like much of it is likely serving much use to anyone now, anyways)

"Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists and tourists." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut
You have created a false dichotomy. The fact is that this planet will become uninhabitable at some point in the future. Whether by asteroid impact, unusually large CME, any of a dozen other scenarios, or just the inevitable death of our Sun, it's going to happen. So will the human story end there, or will it continue, elsewhere? That's the real choice.

I choose survival.

*Star Trek is not a pipe dream. It's fiction. You know the difference, right?

If you got my reference, you know he answer, at least if you read the manga or watched the anime, series or feature films.

Of course you would not be the same.

Read The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov. It's essentially the same story in reverse.