There is an excellent hard science fiction book called permutation city that very related to this topic…it made me feel like i was in a dream when i read this post’s title
The scientific method wasn’t novel to the western world. It’s origins date back to when the Moors conquered the southern half of western europe - and by almost all historian accounts - modernized many institutions over the subsequent hundreds of years (eg, from cutlery to math and science).
I think the most relevant book on the west’s success is called complexity: a guided tour
These types of articles are always a bit befuddling, given how trite the perspectives are and how there's very little reasoning as to why a civilization so advanced that they have the tech for interstellar travel would want to come to Earth.
One of the few arguments that I've heard that tends to resonate is it might be an inadvertent visit or one for pure amusement (e.g., why you'd want to wander towards the less traveled parts of a hiking trail).
But perhaps this is all a bit overly critical because of the lack of progress on the topic...
This is surprisingly one dimensional…
There are many studies that have shown higher levels of intelligence (ie, IQ or some other measurement if intellect) tends to be correlated with higher levels of self-reported “unhappiness,” due to a variety of covariates (eg, higher level of introspection, neuroticism, etc). Which is why looking at something like EQ is important.
There aren’t really great measurements of these things but the mental model is what’s most useful imo—especially the notion that we need to develop intelligence of many types to lead a “happy” well-rounded life. If only it was as simple as a “culture” or IQ problem.
As a sidebar: I rarely understand the purpose of these types of blog posts. Perhaps they’re a manifestation of the SV/VC/PG culture to push out content and “get your voice heard,” which has merit but the amount of work required to provided a well rounded, incisive and pithy blog (eg, old PG blogs) is rarely done.