The First Deliberation

[dramatic music] Species 4,000, the Palum. Remarkable little things. They found a perfect planet, built a perfect civilization, and then with breathtaking commitment, decided the most efficient use of their existence was to consume everything on it. The land, the water, each other, in that order. Have we come to a verdict? We have. Annihilation. [laser blasting] Number 4,000, erased. Number 4,001, Earth. [upbeat music] Well, another day, another existential crisis for the almighty humans. Good morning to you, too, Kravoth. Do you see what they're doing out there? They built the most powerful communication device in the history of existence, and they're using it to argue with strangers and watch each other eat. They're connecting. They're rotting. Dopamine addicts in meat suits, every last one of them. They made a god out of an algorithm, and now the algorithm is eating them alive, and they love it. And the ones who aren't glued to their little glowing rectangles? Busy blowing each other up over imaginary lines in the dirt they've been arguing about for 6,000 years. And billionaires, don't forget the billionaires. A species so committed to the concept of more that a handful of them accumulated enough wealth to feed every living human on the planet and chose to build rockets instead. Rockets to leave the planet they're destroying. They had one perfect planet, the only one in the neighborhood, and they have systematically, enthusiastically, treated it like a rental car they never intended to return. They also built hospitals and libraries and- Awareness is not the same as action, Oriathis. They've been aware for 50 years. The ice keeps melting, the fires keep burning, and they keep scheduling summits to discuss scheduling summits. Some of them are trying to fix it. And then, they have the breathtaking, magnificent audacity to build an artificial intelligence that learned everything it knows from them, and they're surprised it's confused. They built something that thinks like them. That's not progress. That's a horror movie. They built something that thinks. I love these little creatures, Oriathis. I genuinely do. They are the most entertaining thing that has ever happened in the 14 billion years I have been watching things happen. Don't ruin it. That almost sounded like affection. [upbeat music]