On the surface, acts of reason may closely resemble the wanderings of a natural creature. However, the source and the motives are entirely different. The savage are a part of nature, they propagate there like mold, like a virus, like one substance's diffusion in another. Reason is opposed to nature as an agent, and its principal mode of existence is assimilation rather than proliferation. There is no task of seizure, appropriation, or consumption; the goal is to make commonly available, sublimate, cultivate. Thus providing more support for growth and development. Creativity rather than devastation.

A savage would snatch everything at reach, drag it to his den, exchange the booty for that of the others... When it's time to move, the neighborhood is already pillaged and defaced, with the need of regeneration and recovery. And to seek for the remnants of the lost. In this manner, the barbarians squander themselves too.

Reason acts differently: the assimilation of a new world begins with gradual penetration, the transfer of the reason-rooted organization of the world onto the poorly habitable domain. No plunder. On the contrary, accomplishment and improvement, the export of reason. To give is much more important than to take. Yes, it may be harder, slower, costlier. But it brings us a world of freedom, without bars and borders.

When Europeans rushed to the other continents, the lust for plunder was their lodestar: just get there before others, stake a claim, protect from the intruders... Cultural expansion out of question. Exploration as a side trade, just to serve the business. No gifts, no advancement; rather preserve the retardation and hinder development. The flow of European culture in the new world entirely forced by the need of better control and stronger power, to speed up pillage. Afterwards, the rapacious wars between the robbers, then the wars of the rooted down predators with the metropoles, the struggle of the cultivated upper crust of the local community for the right of participation in the pillage of their land, the wars between former colonies for the repartition of the wealth yet left, as well as complaints against Europe and the demands of reparations.

Today, exactly the same unfolds in the outer space. There are scientific projects, some considerations about the amelioration of the prospective habitat. Still, the major part of effort is concentrated on the tasks of seizure, usurpation, expanding a system of defense against any other pretenders... Explore the natural deposits and start pumping out, until anybody else would claim their rights. Yes, research operations are to be supported too; but these are auxiliary expenditures, the overhead. Scientists are only financed from the future gain. Or, at best, they get their crumbs from a generous satiety, while the plunderers are in the process of digesting the loot.

For a burning example, take the Martian projects. Lots of suggestions and technical justifications. Still, all of them aim at immediate landing, with the creation of permanent bases. Is that reasonable? Hardly ever. For a full-fledged assimilation of Mars, a stable and trustable communication channel between Mars and the Earth is an absolute necessity; we will certainly need regular logistic chains, well adjusted mechanisms of interaction and cooperation. It would be much more logical, to create a vast group of orbital facilities to go between the planet surface and the Earth. A network of communication satellites should ensure the full coverage of the surface with a local analog of the Internet and the possibility of promptly calling the Earth via the orbital repeaters. A number of automated ground-based stations is to be serve for the same purpose. The orbital warehouses will receive the freight from the Earth, accumulate and dispatch it for the surface needs. In the same way, the load from the surface is to be accumulated on the orbit and pushed to the Earth with the next train. For most operations, there is no need in live presence. Humans come to an already unfolded infrastructure and get engaged in the issues of in-person accommodation. Following the same logic, one does not need to directly plump on the surface: an orbital presence may be preferable to start with, ensuring regular shifts. Unlike the cargo, manned flights are to be routed for minimum time. The necessary resources will be accumulated on the orbit in the course of scheduled automatic traffic along much more economical (though longer) trajectories. Well, this is not as triumphant as clumsily foot-printing the virgin dust; however, that would be much more comfortable, solid, reliable and safe. Automatic stations and space trucks are cheaper than manned ships, and promoting regular transportation would be economically advantageous. This is not what the earthly predators want. They prefer to insolently usurp a piece of land, to claim their exclusive rights. Who cares for a hundred, a thousand, a million gold-digger suicides? They risk for money, and they are free to put themselves to the altar of the master's profits. Afterwards, a new wave of wars, and the struggle for independence, and the ruined ways of life in the metropole... Does it really matter, with the dangling carrot right there, before the nose?

Nothing can fully annihilate reason in the Universe. Still, one might wish sometimes, that the underdeveloped brutes inhabiting the Earth disappear as soon as possible. They have defiled their planet more than enough; now, they are about bringing their savage ways to the other worlds, to destroy them too. It seems like there is no other way out from the dead end.