losing the dream

I just watched a Daily Show where John Stewart was talking about how our
country used to have a frontier, and no longer does (and how this
impacts our economic and social situation). The guest made some comment
comparing the U.S.'s role in the world to that of Cape Canaveral in the
60s, and John jokingly asked whether he was proposing that we colonize
Mars, getting a big laugh from the guest and the audience.

This saddens me. When did colonizing Mars become a joke?

I've thought many times about how it seems that the dream of colonizing
space, which I think was fairly common in the 50s-70s, seems to have
disappeared from the collective consciousness. The vast majority of
people seem to seriously believe that Earth is all we will ever have,
and think that living elsewhere is only a pipe dream -- if they think of
it at all. For that matter, the broader sense of great progress has
vanished too; people seem to assume that the future will always be
pretty much like the present, apart from shinier consumer gadgets.

Those of us who follow technology closely can clearly see that that's
not the case. Life a century from now will be radically different from
the present in many ways, certainly including space colonization (and
other things that would be off-topic for this list). But as a citizen,
and especially as a father, it's very disturbing to me how few people
ever look up and see more than just pretty lights in the sky.

Any thoughts to share on this matter?

Thanks,
- Joe