[I finally decided to use the "f word" for emphasis, since nothing else seems to work.]
You couldn't write a science fiction scenario weirder than our reality. Here's an outline for a screenplay:
CUT TO: Bridge, the multi-ethnic crew hard at work.
CLOSE IN: Deep in conversation are Captain James T. Kirk, whose ancestors left Earth shortly before their species made it uninhabitable, and First Science Officer Spock, a human/Vulcan hybrid, intellectual and stoic [the Vulcans were originally emotional and violent, on track to destroying themselves and their planet- as Earth's humanoids did- but they took control of themselves, embraced logic and suppression of emotion and avoided self-destruction- hint, hint!]. Kirk and Spock have led the Enterprise hundreds of years back in time to orbit the Earth at its critical moment to learn more about what went wrong.
Spock (peering into a small box): The humanoids are organized into "countries" - overly large collections of individuals. The countries lack cultural/psychological coherence -having quite rapidly replaced millennia of tribal existence- so they routinely use hostility with other countries as a unifying tool. As their technology becomes more invasive and controlling, wars have become bigger and more intense, and are now termed "World Wars." There have been two of these in the last century, ushering in an age where machines are everywhere, making never ending noise, killing millions through malfunction, yet offering "convenience" to the extent that no one can resist their development.
Kirk: "Convenience?"
Spock: Yes, a word we have discontinued due to negative connotation. "Convenience" suggested tasks that were increasingly easy to do. For Earth’s humanoids, once the basics of food and shelter were obtained, making tasks as easy as possible became the major pursuit of self-conscious life. At the time of our visit today, the humanoids’ desire that tasks be easy has led them to the brink of World War III.
Kirk: Spock, I'm scanning their media. The most powerful of the countries claims to be a "democracy" in which citizens vote for leaders through elections, so that theoretically all humanoids of the country have a voice in its governance. An election of their top leader - the “president" - is coming up. I see something going on in their media...recent, from last night.
Spock: Yes, much of the population watched a debate between the candidates for vice president, the number two leadership position. I have just completed a review of the debate.
Kirk: This should be fascinating! What did they say about the coming refashioning of the humanoid body and mind?
Spock: Nothing.
Kirk: What?
Spock: There was no reference in the debate, either from the moderators or the candidates, to the imminent end of the species' current form of body and mind.
Kirk (after a befuddled pause): But, does the population know that the changes are imminent? Is the state keeping the technology hidden?
