"People will be fascinated. We will think of each other in a far more homogeneous way, because we will know that there is something that is different from us. And when we say 'us,' it will mean as a species"
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Schultz is doing something actors do well: staging a future scene in our heads and letting the emotional logic carry the argument. The word “fascinated” is a tell. He’s not predicting policy or science; he’s predicting audience behavior. Faced with proof of “something that is different from us” (read: extraterrestrial life, or any truly non-human intelligence), he imagines humanity snapping into a new, simpler storyline: one cast, one shared identity, one collective “we.”
The subtext is half hopeful, half defensive. “Homogeneous” is a risky word in an era allergic to enforced sameness, but Schultz frames it as a psychological reflex rather than a political program. Difference, in his telling, doesn’t just divide; it can also compress. The moment there’s an external Other big enough to dwarf our internal categories, our usual labels (nation, race, ideology) start to look like petty subplots.
It works because it weaponizes scale. “Us” is a small pronoun doing heavy lifting, expanding from tribe to planet to “species” in a single breath. That telescoping is the rhetorical move: it flatters our capacity for unity while admitting we might only achieve it when confronted, even threatened, by something beyond us.
Contextually, this sits in a familiar post-Cold War, sci-fi-soaked idea: that an outside presence could reboot human politics. It’s less a prediction than a wish disguised as inevitability.
The subtext is half hopeful, half defensive. “Homogeneous” is a risky word in an era allergic to enforced sameness, but Schultz frames it as a psychological reflex rather than a political program. Difference, in his telling, doesn’t just divide; it can also compress. The moment there’s an external Other big enough to dwarf our internal categories, our usual labels (nation, race, ideology) start to look like petty subplots.
It works because it weaponizes scale. “Us” is a small pronoun doing heavy lifting, expanding from tribe to planet to “species” in a single breath. That telescoping is the rhetorical move: it flatters our capacity for unity while admitting we might only achieve it when confronted, even threatened, by something beyond us.
Contextually, this sits in a familiar post-Cold War, sci-fi-soaked idea: that an outside presence could reboot human politics. It’s less a prediction than a wish disguised as inevitability.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
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