Speaking of theater, the movie Gravity in iMAX 3D was probably the closest I think I’ve actually (virtually) felt to seeing the earth from outer space in that literal physical kind of way, which also engaged the emotional mind and species-soul in a gripping drama of survival. The sense that, holy shit, we really are on this precious living orb untethered in space—and there really is an entire universe of vastness out there.
I don’t know if space tourism is the answer. Maybe one day (in the not too distant future) it will be commonplace and bourgeois to travel within the solar system. Maybe we are witnessing the birth of the industry right now, with trillion dollar corporations alongside governments investing billions of dollars into developing the technology for mass space travel. At first it will only be for the rich, but eventually the economics will scale—particularly if we become a solar civilization, with full access to all the abundant cosmic energy at our disposal.
And maybe, once it has been fully depleted, the Earth will be restored, kept as a wildlife preserve and human zoo by our benevolent progenitors, who have since established their kingdoms on other worlds.