jraskell:
Whether you live on that little imaginary island or living on a planet in an empty region of the Milky Way, the arguments are similar.
The arguments are indeed similar, but the scales are completely and utterly out of whack.
That author needs the same reality check. These people clearly have little comprehension of just how far a light year really is. May as well start planning intergalactic travel. After all, what's a few more orders of magnitude?
Let's master intrastellar travel before we put any focus on interstellar travel.
You seem to be misunderstanding the purpose of this project. They aren't proposing that we start building a ship for interstellar travel now, and have it ready by 2112. They simply want us to have one ready by 2112. Step 1 is still just building an unmanned probe.
I would also like to point out that we had civilian air transports flying around before we fully "mastered" flight.
CrossRoads:
Are we there yet?
I don't think we can get there from here....