Yes, but not in the same way we think.

They’re only using their lizard brains, things we all have, but in most people we also use our ape and mammal brains.

Governments are just mean, ornery, and reactive.

Humanity can’t comprehend its own mass

If we can’t fathom the billions of miles between the stars, how could we possibly fathom billions of humans existing?

Also imprecise engineering tended to overbuild things.

I get it. The launch sequence from Apollo 13 makes me cry every time

I had carpenter bees at my old house that were so tame I could grab them out of the air and pet them.

I have had exactly zero problems with the two Brother laser printers I’ve owned for the last 20 years.

The problem is that I would already have existed, so the damage is done.

Honestly a savory baked bean cheesecake would kinda slap.

ETA: A base of baked beans under a cheesecake with hints of maple, with crumbled candied bacon on top and a crust made of pork cracklins

And yet points at every chance humans have had to not kill themselves and learn more about the universe and every time they keep fighting over fractions of a dot

Okay but only for booze.

Most humans could not give two shits about the universe.

Why is that a responsibility? I didn’t ask to exist. What the hell do I owe the universe?

Hmm, yes. As the holy texts say: “In the beginning the universe was created. This has made many people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad idea.”

Existence was a mistake.

I ain’t forcin’ you

You are automatically better than every government that has ever existed.

Or just nudge the asteroid and then there’s just another 65 million years of dinosaurs.

What if I want to be a hunter-gatherer, trading game meat, wild fruit, and psychedelics for trinkets and booze? Will I have to wear pants then?

As long as I don’t have to obey property laws or wake up early or wear pants.

Yeah. But anyone who trusts a government in the first place is an idiot.

Bennewitz’s disinformation campaign has been confirmed. The USAF passed him fake documents and encouraged him to think they were UFOs. The book Mirage Men documents this in some detail.

In the case of Paul Bennewitz, classified radio transmissions. They convinced him it was aliens and he died in a mental hospital.

Then there was Kecksburg, where a classified spy satellite was deorbited and they just let folks believe it was an alien spacecraft.

Same goes for all the Area 51 and Roswell stuff that helps hide experimental aircraft and secret operations behind a smoke screen of woo.