[morningseagulls]

>That he's also a dewy-eyed Trekkie who rationalizes his greed with dreams of space colonization makes it even sillier.

Space colonization is a form of greed: it's basically saying this world is not enough. So I don't see this as a rationalization: in fact, the article heavily suggests that his dream of space colonization was what led to his greed.

[andreilys]

You could just as easily say that space colonization is the highest form of humanitarianism.

If an extinction-level event occurs on earth, humanity can continue to flourish and populate the cosmos rather than go the way of the dinosaur.

[morningseagulls]

>You could just as easily say that space colonization is the highest form of humanitarianism.

"Greed" and humanitarianism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can be mutually compatible, depending on what your definition of "greed" is.

From an economic point of view, humanitarianism can serve the economic "greed" of the rich that's often decried. This is because both of these can be rooted in the realisation that humans have intrinsic economic value, so that the loss of a human life represents a loss of a lifetime of economic value to society.

In the case of Bezos, it's quite clear from the article that his humanitarianism is intrinsically linked to his "greed":

>When Bezos describes these colonies—and presents artists’ renderings of them—he sounds almost rapturous. “This is Maui on its best day, all year long. No rain, no storms, no earthquakes.” Since the colonies would allow the human population to grow without any earthly constraints, the species would flourish like never before: “We can have a trillion humans in the solar system, which means we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. This would be an incredible civilization.”

"We can have a trillion humans [...] This would be an incredible civilization." Sounds familiar? This is essentially the siren song of the Chinese market, magnified a thousandfold.