[thaumasiotes]

Because it's cool.

One day someone will turn lead into gold. There will never be a "good" reason to do that, but the history behind it is sufficient. There's nothing wrong with taking some pride in accomplishing something you've always wanted to do.

The idea that someone somewhere should pick a goal and then all the resources anyone could conceivably spare must be devoted to it, on pain of a designation of "immoral", is a little more disturbing to me.