u/Almondpeanutguy

I'm 27 now, and people still say "Oh, that makes sense" when I tell them I didn't go to school. I have never been to a full day of school in my life, although I went to a school-like summer camp for a few years.

To get a few things out of the way, I do not come from a religious family (although we are a little spiritual. My dad showed me how to read tarot cards), and my parents didn't use unschooling as a deliberate method of isolation or abuse. They sincerely thought it was the best way to raise us. I have one brother a year older than me who was also unschooled.

I've lived in Missouri my entire life, which is a homeschooling friendly state. First in Kansas City as a child, then when I was about 10 we moved to a large, undeveloped property about an hour outside of Springfield.

I'm open to answering anything!

I'm sure I'm not the only one around here who misses the thrill of an oldschool deathmatch. Right now, I don't have an exact date on the calendar, but I'm planning to rent out the Waters House on a Friday or Saturday sometime in the next month.

The thing is, I don't know anyone in the area who I could count on to be there. I want to make sure I have at least a couple people locked in to show up, and also it would be nice to have some help organizing it.

My vision for this event is that we'd play classic games from the '90s and '00s. Quake III, DooM deathmatch, Soldat, Left 4 Dead, Warcraft 3, Total Annihilation, maybe Valve's legendary Y2K hit title Ricochet if we're feeling really wild.

Personally, I'm a bit of a casual gamer, and I don't intend for this to be uber sweaty. As much as I love to get competitive, I just don't have the time and stubbornness to grind any of these games. So if there ends up being a huge skill imbalance, we might do something like a CTF or TDM game and just try to balance the teams.

I have my eyes set on the Waters House because I feel like it has that "your friend's rec room" kind of vibe. Also, it's got a kitchen so we can make it a potluck.

I think it'll be a really good time, but like I said, I'd like to get a couple people locked in before I put it on the calendar. So if you're interested, then let's figure out a date that works for everyone!

It's just such a stupid thing to say.

If we discovered a single bacterium on a comet, it would be global news.
If we discovered any kind of thinking being, even as smart as an insect, it would throw philosophy and religion into chaos.
If we discovered civilized society, it would be the biggest cultural event ever.
And if we were actually able to secure physical samples of an extraterrestrial ecosystem, then it would likely lead to a whole new industrial revolution.

Consider the fact that the overwhelming majority of our civilization is built on the foundations of organic chemistry. Living things on earth still form absolutely indispensable parts of our industry. Rubber, natural fibers, lichen, wood, corn, ash, alcohol. If you suddenly gained the ability to mix-and-match the best industrial processes from TWO independently evolved alien ecosystems, you would be able to completely reinvent society. That would apply just as much to the aliens as it would to us. In all likelihood, your opinions on grand social issues will be a lot less important to the aliens than the fact that your drool is an infinitely renewable source of amylase.

And it's phrased like a humble self deprecation, but it's clearly such an arrogant thing to say. "I know what the aliens care about because my favorite pet topics are clearly the things that galactic civilizations would care about. If there were a really super smart society here, then clearly they wouldn't want to talk to you because you don't talk enough like me." Get over yourself. Nobody cares what you think, and the aliens probably care least of all. Let us get back to gawking at the Sentinel Islanders and searching for amino acids on passing comets. When the aliens do show up, they'll probably end up either colonizing us or signing a lucrative trade deal because we're the only species in the universe capable of producing weasel musk on an industrial scale.