Next year we detect a message from aliens on a planet in a nearby star system. A big debate erupts on how astronomers should respond, on behalf of the human race.
Then, an opinion poll reveals that 75% of the population would send them pictures of cats. Daily.
We now have computers and mobile devices that are far more powerful than those that controlled the Moon landings. Technology enables us to instantaneously access any information on any topic. We can get accurate satellite flyby predictions, the latest emergency information, news, weather, radio & tv broadcasts, podcasts and so much more.
We can use it anywhere, anytime, to shop, model the climate, do our finances or communicate with someone on the other side of the world. We can do this from anywhere on the planet, using devices we can easily carry around in our pocket.
We can access more information than is contained in any library and educate ourselves on any topic which interests us. Yet, <sigh>, the best many people can use this technology for is to post up picture after picture after picture on Facebook of their wretched cats.........
If that is the peak level of conversation we can attain: and if the best we can aspire to is sharing pictures of feline pests on Facebook - then we are not doing ourselfs justice; and the human race is not using technology to full advantage.
It is no wonder that the aliens aren't ready to contact us yet.
Now here is a really useful book:
This page is not a comment on my dislike for felines. It is a statement about how the constant trivialisation of Facebook with stupid cat images is a tragic mis-utilisation of the astonishingly powerful capabilities of the network resources available to them. Instead of using the internet to further their knowledge, they use it to propagate the mundane.
One might also see it as a comment about how unevolved the serial posters of cat images are but I wouldn't want to point the finger at any particular person.....
It will be just my bad luck if the first interstellar message we receive contains an image of a cat.
Worse still, I suppose, would be if I die and enter the pearly gates, only to find there really is a god after all - and she's a cat.