In the initial stages of the study of Earth, the human species was classified as borderline, one that quite possibly would have to be confined to its home planet. While the human animal was not considered anywhere near as vicious or ferocious as some of the worst species that the Verdants had come across, its warlike tendencies were cause for some concern.

The human species, I was told, is the most diverse that the Verdants had ever encountered. Such diversityis a rarity in the universe of civilized beings, and although the Verdants have come to expect the unexpected, this came as a mild surprise to them.

Until they discovered humans, they had never encountered a species in which there were wide character variations between individuals in the group. That is, a species might be good or evil, or any gradation in between, but never good and evil existing side by side in the same species. Additionally, each individual was a microcosm of the whole.

"That meant that we could judge the character of an entire civilization by simply studying one individual," Tom said (another ET - person that educated him - and the name was some earthlike he was given for identification) . "If we found a moral individual, the species itself, as well as all other individuals, was moral. Where we came across barbarians, the species invariably turned out to be barbaric."

"However, discovery of human beings - and the infinite variations in character that constitute the species - threw a monkey wrench into that formula.

"Never before had we seen cruel and remorseless individuals exist side by side with kind and compassionate ones within the same species," Tom said. "Destructive and murderous people walk among the caring ones on Earth. Tyrannical governments rule over peaceful and gentle people, while immoral people exist under benevolent governments. This phenomenon - this range of diversity among humans - is absolutely fascinating."

They came to understand that humans not only vary from individual to individual, but also between individuals and the group as a whole. It took some time for the Verdants to make these distinctions.

"Your long history of warfare - which we have personally observed - told us that we were looking at a savage (primitiv) race," Tom continued. "On the group level we witnessed international conflict, corruption, thievery, the rape of the environment, the plunder of natural resources, and the unspeakable cruelty of genocide. On an individual level, we observed mendacity, thievery, murder, child abuse, hypocrisy (hykleri), sadism, and cowardice of epidemic proportions."

All of these things spoke of a depraved (fordervet) species, Tom explained. But closer scrutiny (granskning) revealed individual accomplishments (talenter) in the arts, music, literature, and architecture that demonstrated a surprising nobility of spirit and mind. It was these redeeming qualities that caused the Verdants to change their minds about us.

Humankind's status was upgraded to "acceptable' after the Verdant scientists had enough data to confidently predict that the species could safely be welcomed into the intergalactic community - with certain reservations.

So, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that humankind will find its place in the heavens thanks to the refined, intelligent, gentle, cultured people who walk among us. It was their contributions that caught the Verdants' attention and convinced them that the species was worth nurturing.

This nurturing of the human species presented a unique challenge, they said - one that they had never faced before. Typically, when helping to prepare other species to make the transition from planet-bound animal to star traveler, the Verdants simply shared their technology with the entire civilized species.

But that formula won't work because of humankind's unrivaled (uforlignlige) diversity. The goal, in this case, is to preserve the redeeming qualities in the species while ensuring that the darker elements of the human character - personified by the dangerous rogues (kjeltringer) of society - are isolated. In other words, to resort to a platitude, they wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

That is, the better nature of humankind, represented by the gentle people, the artists, the thinkers, the lovers, the dreamers, the scholars, the builders, the hundreds of millions of moral people who live ordinary lives of decency, would be welcomed into the intergalactic federation. But there would be no place in the cosmos for the wicked and immoral - those who by their very words and deeds on Earth have demonstrated that they are not fit candidates for membership in the cosmic community.

One prime example of those to be excluded would be leaders of governments whose record on human rights falls short of minimum standards.

The Verdants have decided that the best approach to achieve these goals is to encourage the good people of Earth to police themselves, to take responsibility for ensuring that dangerous scoundrels are quarantined and not allowed access to the heavens. Any failure in this regard could lead to loss of privileges for the entire species. This could mean being forced back out of space until such time as humankind demonstrates that it has resolved the problem and can keep the troublemakers restricted to the planet.

"How does humankind rate overall in comparison to the norm among the various species in the planetary community?" I asked.

"Taking the top 80 percent of the population and discounting the other 20 percent, whom we consider irredeemable, man is inherently good," the one called "Robert" replied. "When the species takes its place in the federation, it will consist solely of that top 80 percent."

"And the bottom 20 percent?" I asked, leaving the question hanging.

Several moments of silence passed before several of the extraterrestrials started speaking at once. "Gus" decided to field the question, and the others deferred to him.

"We do not deal in cruelty or death, nor do we inflict pain," he said. "But we also do not tolerate dangerous rogues who cannot or will not abide by the standards and rules of civilized society."

He was speaking, of course, about the intergalactic community because, as I had been told earlier, the Verdants do not interfere in the internal affairs of other species.

"I think we should leave it at that," he said.

I interpreted the latter statement not as a suggestion, but as a directive, so I exercised discretion and dropped the subject.

In terms of native intelligence, humankind rates at about a 2, certainly no higher than on 3, on a scale of 1 to 10 when compared with other species when they are first brought into the IFSP, Robert continued. I was extremely disappointed with that assessment, and I suppose my face showed it.

"But that will improve," he said. "It always does."

Left alone, he said, the human species would require another two million years, according to the best estimates of the Verdants' scientists, to achieve absolute intelligence.

There was that phrase again.

"Absolute intelligence," I said. It was really a question.

"The point at which it becomes biologically impossible to become any more intelligent. There are limits to everything," Robert said.

But, again, he pointed out, the relatively low rating of a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 is due to the immense diversity of the human species. Most other species have intelligence levels that do not deviate more than one percent from the most intelligent to the least intelligent individuals. For all practical purposes, except for very slight variations, that means that every individual is of equal intelligence.

"If we compared just your most intelligent people - the top 10 percent - your species would rank at perhap 8 or a 9," Robert continued. "But the sheer vast numbers of the less intelligent draw down the average considerably. Again, this is an anomaly that we had never experienced before. We previously had thought that it would be impossible to find such a wide difference among individuals in the same species."

In terms of physical appearance, humans are neither more attractive nor less attractive than any other species. Humans simply are viewed as a species with unique characteristics, just as every other species brings to the planetary community its own unique physiology.

Most of the space beings are what could be described as anthropoid in form, although with great variations. But despite these vast differences in appearance between the species that do evolve into space travelers, they all have at least two physical features in common, I was told. One is the ability to grasp with enough dexterity to make tools.

In humans, and these E.T.'s themselves, that would be the fingers with the opposable thumb. From this amazing anatomical feature come the tools that lead to mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and dominance over fire. All of these things eventually lead to outer space.

There are some pretty strange - at least from my perspective - creatures out there, based upon descriptions - that I heard. For instance, not all of the grasping  are necessarily of the human type.

Some star travelers have dual prehensile organs that are every bit as efficient as the human hand. Even the elephant, with its dexterous trunk, has the physical ability to perform simple grasping chores, although it lacks the intelligence to take full advantage of that faculty. The trunk does fall short though, of the fuller range of refined movement that the human hand possesses. It can pick up a peanut, but cannot operate a pair of pliers.

Also, even if the trunk were as adroit as the human hand, the elephant's massive body itself presents an insurmountable (uoverkomlig) barrier to the dexterity (dyktighet) required to become builders of cities. In other words, the grasping hand is vital but it is useless if the rest of the body is incompatible.

That brings us to the second major feature that all star travelers share. The body must be capable of the mobility required to transcend its native environment. It's hard t imagine an elephant climbing a ladder into the business end of a space capsule. The elephant, in fact, is the only Earth land animal that cannot get all of its feet off the ground at one time.

In other cases, I was told, there are species that have developed super intelligence through evolution, but their bodies are not compatible with that intelligence to allow them to make and use tools or to travel outside of their restricted environment.

The Verdants have discovered many creatures, including those on Earth that cannot live outside of water. Because they are swimmers, they have not developed the physical ability to manipulate their environment in order to mine, to forge, to farm, to manufacture, or to weave clothing. Naturally, familiarity with fire is totally out of the question. And yet some of these creatures have great intelligence whereby they have spoken languages, understand mathematics, and form abstract thoughts.

The Verdants have determined that certain Earth marine species, specifically whales and dolphins, will eventually arrive at that point if current evolutionary processed are not disturbed. But in their present form, even if they developed the intelligence, they will be restricted to the oceans and therefore excluded from the astral community. The body itself is a prison. Of course, that could change through some as - yet unforeseen, evolutionary mutation.

As for reproduction, some species in the intergalactic federation give birth to live young, while others lay eggs. There is at least one species that produces several identical offspring during the adult's 100 - year life span through an internal cloning mechanism. This species has no sex.

The offspring then internally clone offspring identical to themselves when they reach adulthood, which are identical to their parent, and their parent before them. In effect, the population basically consists of one "person" in millions of bodies. This is as close to physical immortality as the Verdants have ever come across.

"….he replied. "You are glimpsing the glorious future, and you are aware that it is tantalizingly (forlokkende) just beyond your grasp. And because of that you are angry and frustrated and you feel cheated. But that is the nature of life."

"Tell me what it will be like," I pleaded.

"We can't predict the future," George continued. "No one can. But based upon our experiences, we can, with great accuracy, tell you what can be expected in general terms."

Humankind will take its place in the Intergalactic Federation of Sovereign Planets sometime early in the 21st century if all goes according to the established timetable, the Verdants told me.

In the short run, in the first 100 years after that event, great strides will be made on the road to curing the ills that have plagued the species from the time that humankind took its first halting footsteps upon Earth. These will not just be physical ailments, but afflictions (sorg) of the spirit and social order as well.

Many diseases of the body will be conquered, intelligence levels will rise, poverty will start to disappear, common courtesy (høflighet) and civility will flourish, nations will begin to consider war unthinkable, crime will plummet (fall), and other antisocial behavior will wane.

But progress does not happen overnight, and it will be several centuries before humankind achieves what today would be considered utopia.

Within 1,000 years, humankind will have been transformed. Great spaceships will be exploring other galaxies. In the absence of poverty, sickness, war, and crime, complete individual happiness will be a universal reality. Illiteracy (analfabetisme) will be but a notation in the history books. Life spans will have increased dramatically. Every citizen of Earth will have any creature comfort necessary to live satisfying and rewarding lives of peace and contentment (tilfredshet).

There will be abundance in the land, and every living person will share in it.

The air and water of Earth will be as pristine (som opprinnelig) and pure as it was before man's ancestors began to befoul them. The rain forests will be restored, the rivers and oceans cleansed. Keys and locks will become a thing of the past, as will police forces and theft insurance, for no person would even consider stealing another person's property or engaging in any other form of antisocial behavior. People will move about the world in great ultramodern vehicles without concern for their personal safety or security.

National armed forces will have disappeared as unfathomable relics (bunnløse levninger) of an insane past.

The Verdants went on and on, painting a magnificent verbal picture of a world that I was incapable of visualizing.

"It's really not all that complicated," George said.

I got the feeling that this particular alien, because he was doing most of the talking on this subject, might have been the designated expert on human psychology.

"As we told you earlier, the human species has been assessed (taksert) as being essentially moral and worthy of nurturing. Think about it. Without exception, all of the mischief in your world is and has been the handiwork of a small percentage of your population. We judge that element to be about 20 percent of the total."

No longer would that minority of troublemakers run roughshod over the world's population, making war and committing crimes against people and property. Tyrants and criminals, both of the street-thug and white-collar variety, will be isolated from the mainstream and effectively rendered incapable of inflicting their rascality (aggresjon) upon the innocent masses.

"Who will oversee these changes?" I asked. "Will the Verdants become the rulers of Earth?"

"Oh, not at all," George replied. "Mankind will maintain complete and sovereign control over its own destiny. We will merely offer you guidance, which you will be free to accept or reject. But based upon our experiences with other alien species, we fully expect that the lessons you learn from us will lead to a hastened social evolution as you apply our teachings to deal with your human problems. It will be a totally natural process."

I may have touched a nerve, because one of the star travelers made it a point to assure me that, while the Verdants are the dominant species in the known universe, the only species that has colonized other worlds, they are not rulers. Every species, he said, is an equal part of the whole. There is no superpower, as such. Every world maintains its sovereignty while participating equally in the intergalactic community.

Earth and humankind will share a similar status.

extract from chapter 11 named:

"....There had been three sessions, with breaks in between, over the previous ten hours. Hour 40 had passed. It would be about 6 or 7 PM. Thursday at home. I ate my "evening" meal, got cleaned up, and slapped a generous sprinkling of cologne onto my face. I wasn't yet ready to settle down to bed, so I asked Gina for another cook's tour.

We peeked in on the engine control room, which was surprisingly small considering the size of the ship itself. I saw only three other travelers, who I presumed were crew members. It was pretty boring, just a typical computer clean room. I had misunderstood, thinking that we were actually going to the engine room. This was just the brain center for the engines, which I was told were inaccessible to me.

From there we went to the navigation center and then toured one of the flight decks from which the shuttle craft depart and arrive. Each deck serves one shuttle craft exclusively, and the one assigned to this port was berthed there when we arrived. I was astounded by its size. It was huge - much larger than any aircraft I had seen on Earth.

I had seen several of them from afar, illuminated by the star cruiser's floodlights, when I was in the observation dome with Gina during my first tour, but they were on toys on the horizon, and it was difficult at that distance to estimate their true size. She took me into the craft, and reminded me of the mammoth ballrooms that graced old ocean liners such as the Queen Mary minus the massive crystal chandeliers and grand staircases, of course. But it certainly had been designed to provide physical comfort to its occupants.

I expected the cockpit area to contain more dials than would be found on a 747 jumbo jet, but it was surprisingly uncluttered. There seemed to be just a few simple controls facing the two pilot seats. There was no windshield as we know it, but rather a very large rectangular viewing screen. Data from sensors on the outer shell of the ship faithfull reproduced the outside view on the screen, Gina said.

The craft normally carried a crew of 20 to 30 and was equipped with enough food, fuel, and other supplies to enable it to be self-sustaining for up to a full Earth year at a time.

Their food/eating

One meal for the entire crew requires 50 pounds of the processed food, which becomes 50 tons when reconverted. The Verdants eat but one meal in a 36-hour cycle.

Their less need for sleep

They have rest areas, lounges, recreation areas, and places for quiet moments of relaxation. But they consider sleep an abbreviated form of death and a terrible waste of time. Through technology, they eliminated the need for sleep millions of years earlier.

They do enjoy their rest periods, however, which essentially are of a social and recreational nature.

"After all," Gina said, "the whole purpose of life is to enjoy it."

And what brings them joy?

"Our greatest pleasure comes from exploration and learning," she said. "They are as important to the enjoyment of life as are the physical gratifications (tilfredsstillelse). Of course, we delight in many of the same things that you find enjoyable. In some respects, we are very much alike despite our vast differences."

"Such as?" I asked.

"A good meal-"

"That processed plant food?" I interrupted. "You like that?"

"Did you enjoy your meals?" she asked. "Well, every dish that you were offered was made from it. Of course, it was tailored (skeddersydd) to your limited tastes. We have an endless variety of dishes, more than you could ever imagine, which are even more pleasing to our palates."

When I stick my foot in my mouth, I really open wide.

Their look at SEX

"Like you, we also enjoy good conversation ... good friends. Sex," she added.

The word was hanging by itself, set apart from the other examples that she had cited. I turned to look at her, but her face, as usual, said nothing.

"Sex is engaged in almost exclusively for pleasure because each female is genetically incapable of producing more than one offspring in her 20,000-year life span. Of course, science can circumvent that restriction, but it rarely does.

Verdants are quite capable of reproducing scientifically outside the confines of the body, she said. And for a brief period in their history they did procreate in the laboratory, as it were. But they have rejected that process-not for any moral reasons nor because they consider it unnatural - but because they simply find that they suffer a loss of fulfillment when they procreate artificially. So now they continue to reproduce biologically as nature intended from the day they began to evolve.

Gina could not recall any instances in her lifetime when a female had a baby under any but natural circumstances.

"But what if there is a miscarriage, or the baby is born with a severe defect that threatens its life?" I asked.

"That does not happen," she said. "All children are born perfect, strong, and healthy. And they are all equally intelligent, as are all adults."

We had been walking, turning into doorways, riding elevators and trams while we talked, and after about ten minutes we arrived in a small, rather intimate lounge area. It was unlike the large lounge - recreation rooms that I had seen up until then. Whereas there might have been 60 or 70 E.T.'s in one of the larger rooms, engaging in quiet conversation, playing what appeared to be board games, or just sitting in lounge chairs and looking out of the fairly good - size viewing ports into the blackness of space, this room held only a few lounge chairs and was unoccupied at the time, save for ourselves.

Again with the hand, I thought, as Gina guided me into one of the chairs and took a seat next to me.

The Verdants have achieved such "absolute intelligence" that they know there is no way to travel faster, to live longer, to build more perfect ships, or to make any new advances in their own civilizations, she continued. That is why one of their great satisfactions is to explore, to learn, to find new wonders in the universe.

"You cannot imagine the thrill, the excitement to come upon an unknown planet, an unknown life form," Gina said. "We never become jaded (trett/medtatt), no matter how many times we have experienced it before. It is just the sheer rapture of discovery."