"Mostly Harmless?"

          For some reason, my mind was stuck thinking about The Turing Test, Cleverbot, and the future portrayed in sci-fi last night before bed. I kept going back to this one perplexing question: How do we truly define a human being to another intelligent species? Is there a way we can sum ourselves into one paragraph that truly defines us?
           I could go with Douglas Adam's thought, and try to summarize us with a very generic summary, but it wouldn't capture what we are as a species. I don't think there are enough words in any language to truly capture us on a whole. I could try, but I probably would die before I finished trying to capture us in words.
          On one level, we're easy to describe. The description of humans genetically and biologically is the easiest. On the bare levels, we are animals that can communicate vocally through language. On the microscopic level, we're all the same. The DNA in all of us is, I'm guessing here, 99% the same. The 1% that's different isn’t going to change a summary of our genetic codes considering that one percent is about outward appearance.
          Where this gets complicated is when you add the metaphysical traits. Our culture, religion, morals, political views, etc is where this becomes challenging. This is where our uniqueness sets in as well. A difference in one of these can give a person a total different perspective on life. You can show two people an abstract image, and can either have two different outputs, or might get lucky and have very similar.
          I feel if we ever have a confirmed first contact with a peaceful alien race, my ideal greeting party would be The UN Building. A representative of every nation would give them a much clearer picture of our diversity instead of a select few from one nation. They wouldn't get a clear picture if, let's say, only representatives of one nation opened communications.
          Then again, my biggest fear is they will be either overwhelmed or offended by one thing that we will be wiped out. Either way, we're all humans, and despite our differences, we will never be able to describe ourselves fully. If we ever truly learn we're not alone, I feel we should stop finding ways to kill each other, and maybe work towards expanding our knowledge of our own planet, and the universe out there while we still can.