Interesting stuff, Jay. Brin pretty much sums it up so there's not much point to repeating the arguments. I do think it would be cooler to be wiped-out at the hands of aliens, than suffer the embarrassment of killing ourselves (which we are very, very good at) through either outright violence or just ruining our environment. Darwinism probably doesn't end at the top of the atmosphere. If the LGM's are going to out-compete us, well, so it goes- we'll get to see things from the Neanderthal's point-of-view, or the American Indian's, Maori's; insert-your-favorite-decimated indiginous people-here. "Evil" has very little or nothing to do with it (see Brin's last photo caption). The alien missionaries will probably be chock-full of good intentions... In the meantime, pass the liver and onions.