That bit about self creating robots reminded me of a short story I read called 'Lungfish' by David Brin. It's one of the stories that stuck to my mind, although I have read reams of scifi, probably thousands of books and anthologies, most of which were forgotten after the pleasure of reading them. That one stuck.

"...such programs could have started at star systems so faraway they could break our minds."

Something to think about when looking at the stars in wonderment is that the vastness of the universe we see is only part of it, the observable universe. There's more, that's so far away light from it cannot ever reach us. It's not something I can conceive of, really, but just stating to myself that there's myriad galaxies, stars, and planets more than 26B light years away requires I at least try, and that must stretch my brain a little, I hope.

I came across that biorobot theory about the grays some time back, and it makes a lot of sense, in terms of space exploration. We can see such capabilities in the offing as folks have started creating synthetic living cells, and if such exploration predated life on Earth, then terrestrial life could be so seeded. That's one of the considerations that causes me skepticism, that terrestrial DNA and life are all interlinked, so our species cannot be some alien spawn. We share almost all of our DNA with our fellows here on Earth. But if all life on Earth was spawned ~4bya, that objection is moot.

I feel deeply that we are on the right track, that our destiny is being achieved, despite my personal flaws and drawbacks, the terrible news, and the unimaginable gulf between what we can do today and what we need to be able to do to achieve spreading out across just the local stellar neighborhood. Since Spacex has begun launching multiple times a month, I feel the pulse of destiny quickening. Dozens of manufacturers and launch providers have entered the market in recent years, and I'm really encouraged that it's accelerating almost exponentially. Used to be only a few nations and alliances had the wherewithal, but today there's Spacex, Rocket Labs, Relativity Space, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, ULA, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, NASA, and many more as well. Companies that service the launch industry, or service the satellite industry, which is now thousands of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, are becoming mature and focusing on specific niches, like Hall effect thrusters or LOX production. It's becoming like the free for all spaceports in the scifi pulp novellas we read as kids. I can feel those fever dreams on the tip of our tongue, just beyond today, but actualizing in the background.

Pretty exciting for an gray bearded old man working for a living. Sure more fun to think about than war or the next round of compulsory medical device testing to resist. I drink a toast to you in anticipation of running across you in that great beyond aeons from now, when our dreams have all come true, all our days are happy, and we can dock our ships and share a pint.

Cheers!

Edit: Man, I missed commenting on so much, it's hard to type everything out. You can't go wrong with peas. They're good food, and will keep a long time if you keep them dry. I have a bin full of beans and such, and buckets of rice, too. I'm growing stuff not so much to eat right now, but to keep stocks alive I can expand if need arises, turnips, onions, beets, carrots, taters, spices, herbs, and such. I hope you can too.

Re-Edit: Oddly, I can't grow a bean or pea here, despite the soil and climate are perfect. The snails kill every single one before they get past seedlings. Interestingly, the snails are invasive European Land Snails, which the French make into escargot, delicious drenched in butter and garlic.

"...apex predators are the only ones that don't hide."

Ambush hunters hide. Awaiting clumsy prey trying out new habitat, like lungfish flopping onto the beach.