[Porsche-O-Phile]

I don't disagree - I've read "Billions and Billions" too which gets into this quite a bit, but we're at a point now for the first time in human history where we really can wipe out ALL humanity with the weapons we've created. This capability has only been around since 1945 - about 70 years. That's nothing compared to the run of human history. Sooner or later someone WILL rationalize the use of mass-WMDs and all bets will be off.

It wasn't all that long ago that we all lived under the specter of MAD as a policy. It only took one nut (and there are a lot of them, and they gravitate towards positions of power) to put things in motion that would have had catastrophic consequences. We came awfully close in 1962. We got lucky. We won't forever.

Humans are a very violent species by our nature and the veneer of civility that keeps the many millions of years of evolution leading to it in check is a very thin one. It often rips and fails. We have many deaths and wars over stupid and pointless things like political affiliation or what invisible sky-being we believe (or don't) in. I don't hold much hope for humanity's long-term prospects given our history, especially in the context of a world bristling with ever more powerful, far-reaching and deadly weapons. I wonder what the aftermath will look like.