re: #200 Jimmah

I sometimes imagine that little capsule we sent off containing basic info on humanity and where to find us being picked up by a vast nation of giant hungry reptilian space-Nazis. They could be on their way here right now, for all we know. Someone has probably used this as the idea for a sci-fi novel already.

Actually, the sci-fi idea I have is that there is a race of war-mongering, scary beings out there. Us. We have people on this planet that hack up other human beings with machetes, and they aren’t even the worst ones we produce. (Close, though.)

Seriously, looking at the history of mankind, and how societies have done when they are tilted this way and that, I’m not sure a society more brutal than ours could get off of their planet. It would be very enlightening to do a survey of different societies, their commonly-held values and level of individual liberties, and their scientific successes.