From the exploration logs of Dron Acharya, Planetary Surveyor, archived in Galactic Library 42, The History of Peoples Section 17: Carbon based space-faring section, Species Self-Name: Humanity
Some peoples leap for the stars with abandon, not caring about the danger that awaits them, and some peoples wait and calculate their eventual escape from their homeworld: account for every possibility, and ensure success. It’s very rare to find a species content to stay on their homeworld. Nearly unheard of, in fact, as curiosity and exploration are usually prerequisites to scientific advancement. Even the most utopian planet leaves most species hungry for exploration, at least for a few individuals.
Humans are not an exception. By the time I received my assignment to survey their home planet, there were already humans in neighboring developed planets and entering into interspecies trade. They were doing well at it too, for a new species. I followed their development with interest, the study of new sapient species is my profession, after all, and they were close to my current planet for residence.
But in a few years, humans gained a reputation as brutal and dangerous barbarians, ruthless killers, and fearless mercenaries. They are small and limber, curious and inventive, and above all, dangerous. They are venomous, armed both with teeth and to the teeth, and prone to madness. There were those who needed to be contained
And that is why I got involved: because people were afraid. As is often the case, the parliament and overseer of the quadrant wanted more information before they decided whether or not humanity needed to be imprisoned or exterminated.
I will not discuss here the ethics of barring a whole species from a planet or the barbarity of enforcing a planetary prison on any sapient species. I will only say that humans found themselves forbidden from stepping foot on certain planets and under threat of imprisonment. There are many species who value caution and
I was excited to study humans. They were the first new research opportunity in over a decade, and the first species I was able to survey on their homeworld. I jumped on the opportunity to learn about and charted the next available transport to the human homeworld.
I write now from my quarters on that transport, as I descend towards Earth. At this moment
It it my hope that this short comment will eventually be the introduction to a volume on Humanity as a species. Perhaps not a history or a scientific study, but an attempt to understand a new people who are not yet understood by the vast majority of the intelligent universe. Whether we decide to imprison and exterminate them or allow them to flourish and spread, we should, at the very least, understand them.
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