I guess it's about the bias towards one's own world view. (And eventually the worship of beliefs, which are mere constructs of our limited knowledge.) The spac

I guess it's about the bias towards one's own world view. (And eventually the worship of beliefs, which are mere constructs of our limited knowledge.) The space travelers travel from transit station to transit station. What do they assume when they stumble upon an uninhabited Earth? It's a transit station. It's not only the bias of the space traveler, but also that of the reader who assumes that the space traveler is familiar with the concept of people living on planets, and therefore since the traveler did not conclude that this was an uninhabited planet, the reader already assumes it cannot be Earth.