The beings that could make it into space are the long-term descendents of humans, improved by genetic engineering and/or technology, with the awareness and intelligence to cooperate on a larger scale and in a much more effecient way than humans as we know them today.
Cooperation is to be valued, but so too are competition and conflict. The first C without the other two C's is useless. It leads nowhere but stagnation and a slow decay. All human progress to date has been dominated by self-interest channeled into positive avenues, and it will remain that way. Altruism among our species exists overwhelmingly in the interests of self-preservation, by a variety of mechanisms.
I see no reason for that to change. In fact, I wouldn't like it to change. It simply needs to be better controlled and focused--a gun instead of a bomb. What you describe as the future of humanity to me sounds like an inferior knock-off version, like a fake $10 Rolex.
As an example, I'm not concerned about the prospects of someday finding some alien civilization more peaceful and cooperative than us. Odds are if forced to, technology being equal, we could kick the crap out of them, because our species is about as violent as a species can be without destroying itself. We are built to survive. What worries me is someday, in the distant future, finding something
worse than us that has likewise survived.
I lump any such "improvement" to the human race which strips it of its most vital survival assets in the former category, personally. Our species is where it is both because it can cooperate
and compete, because it can be both extremely brutal and extremely compassionate, it can be peaceful and violent. That's the duality of nature. Tear one side off the equation, and the other half equals zero--it becomes void.
We should always strive to be the best we can be. We should aim to subdue rather than destroy. But if necessary, we should always be willing to contemplate the otherwise unthinkable. To do less is to effectively commit suicide as a species on the evolutionary timescale. Human survival is paramount, and the human condition is the penultimate concern. For the former, capability for violence is required, and for the latter, the ultimate triumph of Western values.
They will not be colonized with large numbers of people until Antartica on our own planet becomes overpopulated. IMO.
lolwhut
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