I'll agree that sci-fi geeks have vastly inflated opinions of both fields.  That said, advances from AI have contributed to your quality of life significantly.  Space exploration has been one massive money pit since we got satellites working.<p>AI:<p>+ Keeps your inbox free of spam.<p>+ Is more responsible for black Americans being able to get a home loan without being discriminated against than any act of Congress.<p>+ Saves you money on your car insurance.<p>+ Runs the factories that make your goods and the warehouses that ship them.<p>+ Loses video games against you every day without complaint, by being hopefully challenging enough to flatter your ego without actually being difficult.<p>+ Can do some surprisingly sophisticated things with language analysis these days, such as determine whether you're a man or woman by analysis of a sample of your writing.<p>And the coolest thing about AI is that we've accomplished the above feats of magic so freaking routinely that people don't even think they're AI anymore.  People will only admit something is AI when we <i>can't</i> do it.<p>Space Exploration:<p>+ Artificial satellites.<p>+ Slush fund for defense contractors.<p>+ Tang.