It was really too bad that humans had such a knack for storytelling. With just their words, they could make anything sound as if it were the most precious, most unobtainable thing in the universe. Often, these exaggerations would be harmless: you would only end up buying a house or a car, or marrying someone you met online and had only met three months ago.

It became worse when humans began to tell stories — lies — about humanity itself. Humans liked to go on endlessly about how sacred and priceless humankind was. They couldn't be blamed for that: belief in the greatness of one's own kind is biologically ingrained in all creatures. It's a common code shared by all intelligent species across the universe.

I come from a people known as the Bathalian race, hailing from a planet distant enough from Earth that primitive human technology hasn’t even detected it yet. Our superior intelligence, resources, and tech gave us the capacity to explore the deepest recesses of space. It was on our journey that we stumbled upon this little planet crawling with life.

Earth’s inhabitants, we determined, were weak creatures: they needed the sun to survive, and their bodies’ internal temperature regulators wouldn’t allow them to withstand extreme temperatures. I recall how strange it looked to see these human creatures covering their bodies with the carcasses of other animals. I assumed it was a cultural practice until, months later, they began to shed their so-called “coats” and don clothing that barely covered their bodies.

Their constitutions were so fragile that some of them had dedicated entire rooms in their homes to house clothing and footwear. This was why I found it astounding when the first human I met hailed the resilience and tenacity of the human species. He was an evolutionary biologist who had written three popular books about the development of human life from lower primates.

I was, frankly, not impressed. The gestation period of the human fetus alone was evidence of their kind’s inferiority. This first human — a “doctor,” he called himself — had dedicated his entire life to the study of his own species. It was impressive feat at first mention; however, the fact that his entire life consisted of a measly five decades, and the fact that he had spent it studying beings exactly like himself made his credentials much less impressive.

But I decided to give this human the benefit of the doubt. Although younger than me by over nine decades, he knew more than I about the workings of the human body, including the mind, or “human psychology” as he liked to call it. According to this doctor, the progress of human cultures, beliefs, and behaviors can all be traced back to the evolution of the brain.