Humans fit a lot of stuff in the time capsule on Voyager 1 to give any aliens who stumble upon the space probe a sense of our civilization. But they might have just included this mock PSA by Tom Scott for the Interstellar Safety Council, warning alien species about human ferocity and unpredictability. So many good moments here, particularly the section on our vulnerabilities, which of course our arrogance causes us to all but ignore.
Scott says his video was inspired by this Tumblr meditation, which reads:
It's funny how science fiction universes so often treat humans as a boring, default everyman species or even the weakest and dumbest.
I want to see a sci fi universe where we're actually considered one of the more hideous and terrifying species.
How do we know our saliva and skin oils wouldn't be ultra-corrosive to most other sapient races? What if we actually have the strongest vocal chords and can paralyze or kill the inhabitants of other worlds just by screaming at them? What if most sentient life in the universe turns out to be vegetable-like and lives in fear of us rare "animal" races who can move so quickly and chew shit up with our teeth?
Like that old story "they're made of meat," only we're scarier.
We're certainly a threat to ourselves. Why wouldn't we be a threat to others?
Via Co.Create.
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