The sad comment on humanity is the lack of overall vision. Where we once celebrated the pioneers, those who pushed back the boundaries of knowledge and accomplishment, now we recoil from them in quailing horror and celebrate things like "diversity" in name only.
Hopefully (although not realistically), the bad stats are there. They can only be improved by continuing to rack up successes.
In reality, there will be other failures, other casualties, and yet some of humanity stands steadfast in its intrepid nature and forges onward.
If aviation had been left to military endeavors, and the Lindbergs and Earharts, the stats would be a lot worse. Even military aviation has its accidents, from pushing the envelope in high performance aircraft as well as less exotic planes.
We, by our nature, need to explore, to push those boundaries, to accomplish things, to have a dream.
The other side of it is what will happen without a continuous push to go to space in a significant way. Humanity will “end” early. It’s that simple.
We have already been reduced by the last half-century of 'social scientists' from a nation which prided itself on its achievements to apologetics. Another half century of that, and we'll be reduced to squabbling over limited resources--limited because we will not have stepped beyond where we are and accomplished anything near the advances we are capable of.
That will lead to warfare, a decay of civility, and an eventual return to chipping flint to hunt dinner. One significant impact, a serious pandemic, and two generations out all we see now could fade into myth.
As far as resources go, the low-hanging fruit has been picked. This is our chance as a species to step beyond the confines of a single planet and tap the resources beyond our atmosphere...IF we rise to that challenge.
We should have 'been there' by now. From Sputnik to the Moon and back was less than 13 years. What have we done lately?
IMHO, it is a question of what we want for our posterity, whether they continue to develop and grow, or whether we doom them to hunter/gatherer status in the ruins.
“from Sputnik to the moon and back in less than 13 years.....what have we done lately?”
Well .... we spent 13 years frittering our country away in the pathetic Middle East, and making Wall St oligarchs much richer with taxpayer bailouts for starters. Outrageously we keep our borders open thanks to the beliefs of rich New Yorkers, who coincidentally want our right of self defense and our firearms too. Until our owned politicians run America FTBO of ONLY our nation, we will fritter away what is left of our exceptionalism.
I agree. Or as Heinlein once put it (paraphrasal), we are long since the point where we need to get our thumbs out of our behinds and get into space in a serious way. Unfortunately, most of those in power today (and many others) are only concerned with their own immediate wellbeing or power.
You are correct of course about where humanity could likely go (imagine something like the Spanish Flu, but in a version difficult to come up with a vaccine for, and what comes after that?) However, by “end” I had in mind human extinction, as in an “ELE”, to steal an acronym from a mediocre movie about the same sort of event.