This reminds me of a situation some years back. It was announced that we found evidence of ancient life on Mars in the form of microbial-sized fossil in a Martian meteorite. It was big news, the font page story on news papers and magazines. And the news.

The rock—the timely, world famous meteorite—was on display at the National Air and Space Museum. I went to D.C. to brave the crowds and see if I could get a glimpse at the thing. When I got there, I didn’t see a line. Nobody was looking at the meteorite. I was able to walk right up to it.

We had just discovered (although this subsequently proved false, an alternate explanation was discovered for the alleged “fossils”) that we are not alone in the universe and nobody cared.

While I’m at it, I recently published a story I wrote years ago here on Medium. It’s strangely relevant.

In This Together