Image credit: Our World in Data

Historical records also show a tendency toward more peaceful and less violent behaviour, in both civilian crime rates:

Image credit: Our World in Data

…and military deaths

Image credit: Our World in Data

As Steven Pinker said, “Violence has been in decline over long stretches of time and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence.” While this notion might be a hollow comfort to those who’ve survived a violent crime or are living in a war zone, the statistics seem to substantiate Pinker’s assertion.

The main idea is that the highly aggressive behaviors that might have enabled our species to become dominant over our competitors in the distant past will diminish considerably as we become more literate, intellectually sophisticated and -websites such as Quora.com- as our capacity for wide-spread communication and exchange of ideas increases. That capacity has expanded geometrically, if not exponentially, within the last few generations. And, yes, despite all these evolutionary changes, one can find many, many examples of violence, hatred, bigotry and destructive behavior in our modern day society.

Presumably, this decline will continue as we develop even more sophisticated space technology that, though now limited to robotic explorations of the solar system and -hopefully- a resumption of our human moon missions, will eventually enable humans to embark on interstellar missions.

If the Bellicosity Diminishment Hypothesis is correct, we will have become almost serene by the time we embark on our first expedition to the Alpha Centauri system. Presumably, an alien race capable of visiting us might be similarly disinclined toward violence, preferring, instead, to either monitor us without interference or to attempt to engage with us peacefully. (They could be here already, but, recognizing that such an extraterrestrial interaction might elicit a violent, xenophobic response, have decided to keep their distance.)

Is it disappointing to think that so much time will elapse before aliens will ever come into contact with Earthlings?  Well, first, I am convinced that life abounds in the galaxy and that contact with aliens is inevitable. So, there is no cause for disappointment. Secondly, the vast separation distance between stars could well be much to our benefit: perhaps the immense amount of time needed for a species to develop into an star-faring race might be about equal to the time the species requires to eradicate its bellicose instincts.

The vast distances separating the stars might be to every race’s advantage. “The Bellicosity Diminishment Hypothesis” suggests that only the most rational and pacifistic alien races ever evolve into interstellar explorers.