Humanity has rarely focused on its collective well-being, not over the preceding centuries and not today. Among our current bad habits, we repeatedly opt for short-term benefits over long-term benefits in matters as complex as carbon-neutral energy, as fraught as vaccines, and as obvious as shopping with reusable bags. And for over a century we have been broadcasting our existence to the entire Milky Way in radio waves without pausing to worry if any other civilizations out there might be both smarter than us and more predatory.
