In the travel guide "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the original entry "Earth: harmless" was expanded to "Earth: largely harmless" through intensive research. Well, whether this is still valid today, is a moot point. At least intergalactically it is still true. But I sometimes wonder what extraterrestrials might think when they observe the goings-on here: Would they smile amusedly? Speechless amazement? Or in the evening at the bar with the pan-galactic Donnergurgler with other extraterrestrials about it ponder, what the earthlings with some behavior might intend?
Deadwood
"You know what I find most absurd about earthlings? Every year, when the days get shorter and colder, they swarm out and buy dead conifers. Some even strike down their own specimen in the forest. Then they set it up in their dens and put all sorts of frippery on it. Perhaps this distracts from the fact that the little tree continues to dry up. And then many things are wrapped in lots and lots of colorful paper and placed underneath. Hours later, after the arrangement has been partly sung about, the sometimes quite elaborate wrappings are torn down and disposed of. Often just a few days later, the tree also ends up in shared areas outside the burrows."
Driving box
"Oh, that's nothing. You know what's really crazy? The ubiquitous presence of these rolling units. There's one or more of them outside every cave. Sometimes Earthlings sit in them - usually alone, although they try very hard to make sure the unit is as big as possible and has plenty of room. With that, they move to another location. Ninety percent of the time, though, the thing sits around in front of the dwellings. And even when they do move, it often doesn't go anywhere because so many are doing it at the same time in the same place. For a very long time, the units also stand in front of light posts. When it lights up at the top, they stop. The many standing in their unit is increasingly annoying the earthlings, but it is still very important to many to continue doing it the same way. In order for them to get from one place to another with their units at all, there are solid, wide, gray stone surfaces everywhere with which they have covered the entire earth. It seems inefficient to me.
There are also longer mobile containers for several terrestrials. However, many terrestrials absolutely want to stand in their own container. Since they have built quite a lot of their caves compressed together, one could believe that the Earthlings are concerned with a collective togetherness. But the idea could also be to have more parking areas and paths for these driving units, because they are really everywhere, sometimes stacked on large floors or in individual boxes. Every two years, most earthlings urgently need a new driving unit, although they are quite stable in themselves and last a long time.
Oh yes - at one point in many units there is such an opening into which you can fill toxic, finite liquid. This is then burned in the unit so that the earth can get a little warmer. Maybe they always want summer?"
KraftPunkt
"No, I don't think so. (Takes a sip) Because even when it's nice outside, they often sit inside in the units or in their caves. I keep looking at the earthlings and have discovered something else strange: Some of them get together quite regularly, either in one place or energetically connected, to press keys with their fingers to create virtual things. They call this "programming". I thought it was quite funny, because they have already achieved a great deal of networking and communication. And they've also optimized their cooperation a bit. They call it the Internet and software and apps. Well, in any case, they want to create really smart things, but the way to get there is often very inefficient. So day after day, they sit together in meetings and look at so-called KraftPunkt presentations. Thereby it is apparently relevant to criticize, for example, irrelevant things. The more specific the verbalized phrases sound, the better. In the end, new tasks are then thought up and people soon meet again - always in a different constellation. Strangely, there is little time left for what they actually wanted to create. By the way, KraftPunkt is used for almost everything: Reports, documents, descriptions. I don't get it - they have so much technical potential and waste time on nothing." "Yeah, that's really absurd. You know what? We should suggest a change to the guidebook publisher Ursa Minor. Let's better turn 'Earth: largely harmless' into the entry 'Earth: largely harmless, absurd in places'. Cheers, to Earth!"
We evaluate and give things an individual meaning. Whether something is meaningful or absurd is subjective. What is important to one person is stupid to another. And yet: Just because something has always been done this way in the past, it can be nonsense today. Yesterday's solutions are today's problems. What helps: Always take a look, be critical and: Change of perspective!