The human is sitting with aliens who study the weather and they show some old videos, first giving offensensitivity warnings, of human storm chasers. They explain the jobs of the storm chasers, the dangers, and what was learned from those brave men and women who sometimes lost their lives in the pursuit of scientific discovery. They also explained of storm-tourists. Those insane adrenaline junkies who would go with storm chasers to catch a glimpse of storms like tornadoes, to be able to photograph and video them, sometimes taking their children with them. Just to have an adventure. -- Anon Guest
Humans have to be insane. No other species they knew of did things like this, not even in more dangerous times when lifespans were understandably shorter. Not a single intelligent life form known to the Alliance had ever willingly gone into dangerous phenomena for the thrills. When they had gone, for science, for discovery, for a desperate chance, they certainly didn't take their children with them.
This was clearly footage of Humans going towards a highly dangerous storm. A storm that destroyed property, destroyed lives, and caused intense damage wherever it went. Not only were they going towards clear and evident danger, but they were doing so with their fragile young in tow.
"What could a pre-verbal Human possibly learn from this excursion?" asked Companion Thrik, staring at the still frame of the adult Human with a much smaller Human strapped to their body. "Is that harness safe for such unsafe conditions? How does the protection from flying debris work?"
Human Gab took a deep breath. "I did try to warn you about this. These aren't even there for science. They're there for thrills. Their lives have become so safe and secure that they chase adrenaline peaks by going to dangerous places and doing dangerous things.They're so complacent about it that they're bringing their infants. That kid," Gab circled the image of the child with the dot of their laser pointer, "is too young to remember anything that happened that day. The parents just brought the kid along because it was fun to go and didn't want a literal baby to miss out. Worse - that harness is pure WYSIWYG[1]. There is no protection from flying debris."
"They all survived? How did those people get their parenting license?"
"This is pre-shattering, there were no--" Human Gab stopped himself. "I really did try to warn you about this. Some people just... don't think about stuff. They just do it and act outraged when there's consequences. I have entire folios on articles I found in the archives. Storm tourist parents attempting to sue a state or a county because the kid they brought into danger with them got killed or injured by storm debris. It's ridiculous."
Companion Thrik considered this. "If I were the ruling body," he said, "I would have forbidden them from child-rearing at all."
"To be honest - I'm behind that sentiment. Alas, that ruling body had a tradition of freedoms that ended up having fatal consequences for too many people. It kept going on until the Green Revolution and all that nonsense, and it was really hard to end it even then. Some people just will not learn."
"What happened to the people like that?" asked Thrik, even though he knew it might be more of a concern to know.
"They doubled down on everything and left to become Greater Deregulations."
Humans truly were insane.
[1] WYSIWYG: (pron: wiz-ee-wig) What You See Is What You Get - nothing extra is hidden from casual observation. It's all there in the open.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / solarseven]
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