Assuming people that have children are rational then the time discounting factor is not what you claim or (perhaps more likely) as people love and expect to love their children and grandchildren (and future descendents) then their (the descendents) expected utility is not time discounted even while ones own is. I likewise imagine that some people will treat long lived versions of themselves in a similar fashion such that they discount their own expected utility for the near term but do not discount their expected utility in the same amount for the version of themselves that will be alive some 200 years hence.
Those individuals and those families that behave in this manner should be expected to outlive or out breed those that do not. They also from history out colonize people that do not hold the expected long term utility of their descendents as a high concern.
Therefore, while society at large may never place a high priority on colonizing space or other high short term cost and risk but potential long term gain proposals, we should expect that individuals that care about potential future descendents will. In your colonization scheme there will be those individuals that will give up a life of current pleasure for the potential to provide an equal or greater amount of pleasure to themselves and their descendents elsewhere.
Assuming people that have children are rational then the time discounting factor is not what you claim or (perhaps more likely) as people love and expect to love their children and grandchildren (and future descendents) then their (the descendents) expected utility is not time discounted even while ones own is. I likewise imagine that some people will treat long lived versions of themselves in a similar fashion such that they discount their own expected utility for the near term but do not discount their expected utility in the same amount for the version of themselves that will be alive some 200 years hence.
Those individuals and those families that behave in this manner should be expected to outlive or out breed those that do not. They also from history out colonize people that do not hold the expected long term utility of their descendents as a high concern.
Therefore, while society at large may never place a high priority on colonizing space or other high short term cost and risk but potential long term gain proposals, we should expect that individuals that care about potential future descendents will. In your colonization scheme there will be those individuals that will give up a life of current pleasure for the potential to provide an equal or greater amount of pleasure to themselves and their descendents elsewhere.