The Universe Within 12.5 Light Years

It should be a goal for Earth to send a probe to one of those stars. As the probe will be unmaned, a mission taking a hundred years or more is not out of question.

There are already plans to reach alpha centauri in about 20 years with unmanned probes (1). There still remain some technical hurdles in terms of the laser design to propel these probes afaik but it seems like this could be solved with more funding.

Too bad we are in the current era of eschewing scientific research in favor of crony politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot

Yeah given the current situation I bet China or India might end up sending those out before us.

Which, to be fair, is embarrassing for the US, but is just fine as far as species achievement is concerned.

Absolutely. At the same, I would love for U.S. embarrassment to spawn another "space race".