SETI
In which Rat receives a puzzling message
Good time of day, humans!
It’s the silly time of the week again.
Throughout human history, violence has been slowly decreasing but fraud has been on the rise. Empires and other organizations based on the latter generally have persisted better than those based on the former. Perhaps any other species that has managed to avoid killing themselves off and enter space has went even further down that path.
Therefore, should we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I reckon it’s unlikely we’d be attacked «Independence Day» style. Instead, we’re going to be presented with an advanced version of «Nigerian1 prince mail».
That being said, humans are the species that invented «democracy» and «social security», so there are good reasons to expect them to be competitive on the galactic stage.
On a side note, most of those are believed to originate in countries other than Nigeria.
Human capacity for fraud is tied to a capacity for hoaxes, some of which are very entertaining. I see a bright future among the stars.
Komodo Dragons are the species used to exemplify "Deception" as an innate behavior pattern seen in animals and humans. Ethology- Paul MacLean triune brain theory - you know it is hood because mainstream science has largely dismissed his massive work. He gets credit for naming the limbic system I think.