It's all PR," said Hutchins. "If we ever produced a person who was unrelentingly honest, everybody would want him dead. - Jack McDevitt

What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably worse things to do with one’s life.

The belief that society was in decline was a permanent characteristic of every era. People always believed they lived in a crumbling world. They themselves were of course okay, but everyone around them was headed downhill.

The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.