[sammalloy]

> The question I have would be, what would we as a species need to demonstrate to be allowed "off leash," in a community of other spacefaring civilizations? What consistent understanding would each person as a random human need to have to be able to be relied upon to interact safely with a spacefaring being?

I think that Martin Luther King, Jr. answered this question in 1967:

> Modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance. We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish. And yet we haven't learned to walk the earth like brothers and sisters.

[motohagiography]

It's almost as though every person already has the tools and a manual, and we each have the individual choice whether to become it or not. :)

[sammalloy]

I agree, but there are also strong societal forces at work keeping us divided and in constant conflict. I think it’s really hard for most people to navigate through this morass, and they either become bogged down in it or end up on one side of the opposing division. The trick is not to give in to one side or the other and to choose equanimity.