I agree with you. I just like wildly speculating in a way that at least maintains internal consistency so that the "path" laid seems plausible. Mostly for fun.

I agree with you. I just like wildly speculating in a way that at least maintains internal consistency so that the "path" laid seems plausible. Mostly for fun. ;) But I get it, the more twists and turns you add to this path that don't have empirical support, the more "out there" you get. Shrug. > Humans are really good at dealing with weird events. We're living through a climate catastrophe, a pandemic on a scale unknown to previous generations living in less connected worlds last I checked, we are NOT dealing well with these things: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-..., and the psychological impact: https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/ https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-imp... > I can't imagine that it wouldn't very quickly become just another part of our lives There are so many people driven by fear and paranoia right now (see: many conservatives, if you'll permit the stereotype for a minute, but there IS some science to back that up at least) that the paranoia itself would be dangerous. It's like how the Khwarazmian Empire got completely wiped out because they were deeply suspicious (without basis in fact) of Genghis Khan's multiple trade envoys, who they simply assumed were spies, and who they managed to send back missing most of their heads (gravely upsetting the Genghis, and the rest is history). All it would take is for a few rogue states to send nukes up at some "monitoring" mother ships (just look at Russia with its pre-emptive "NATO-fearing" war) and that might be the end of that...