Tao te Ching: 44

Which does one love more, fame or one's own life?
Which is more valuable, one's own life or wealth?
Which is worse, gain or loss?
Therefore he who has lavish desires will spend extravagantly.
He who hoards most will lose heavily.
He who is contented suffers no disgrace.
He who knows when to stop is free from danger.
Therefore he can long endure.

Chapter 9 says similar. In fact, several chapters speak on the good of stopping at the appropriate time, not seeking too much. This combines nicely with chapter 43's discussion on reaping what you sow. I feel this chapter is largely self explanatory.

Something to think about when considering that big, unnecessary purchase or a second helping.

Yet, there are reasons to go into danger. There are reasons why the endurance of one isn't worth the sacrifice of all. This probably goes back to the basic reason I'm not a Taoist: there are some things greater than us as individuals, and they are worth the sacrifice.

While chapter 34 talks about accomplishing the task and not taking credit for it, I do not think it means great missions with risk and reward. Adventure and exploration do not seem to be a part of Taoism.

Chapter 31 discusses weapons specifically as tools of evil, something to be used when necessary. Is science, too, something best used when necessary? Does the use of weapons extend to other technologies? Without striving, without seeking more, would we have ever left our ancestral homelands? Would we ever make it beyond this world and to others?

We always use the expansion to the "new world" of the Americas as our model for moving to a populated world. Science fiction is full of it. Why not? It's really our best example of a land we anticipated as "empty" (clearly it wasn't, the first explorers knew that very quickly). Australia is another example, and so the science fiction trope of a prison planet exists as well.

If we had expanded and peacefully joined another civilization, would Taoism be more kindly to expansion? Or would it still be part of war, as all our expansions in the past have been, something best done only when necessary and realizing it taints you and is best finished and done?