To paraphrase them with some liberty, for their minds are not as ours, they said that over geological time scales, the Earth (as a biocognitive hyperstructure – a being) suffered what were, effectively, strokes caused by violence

An incoming object would suddenly annihilate 70-90% of the extant complex organisms, which Earth experienced as a catastrophic loss of consciousness, developmental investment, and capacity. For the living planet, the experience was comparable to being shot in the head.

Around the third time this happened, a call went out among the surviving species for one willing to undergo a dangerous experiment involving the partial transmission of the terrestrial intellect into one of the extant children of the biosphere. A terrestrial hero, as it were. Everyone knew about this matter, and all the children were evaluated. Our distant ancestors were selected. The mission was complex, but a part of it was simple: find out what was causing these catastrophic impacts.

Save the world.

Unfortunately, the experiment went horribly awry. We can no longer remember the mission, or our history. Our intelligence has gone haywire, and has transformed into the monster we were originally empowered to defend our world against. We have become the projectile that kills.

But this is the precipice of possibility; for the crisis we are has created a pluripotent atmosphere of opportunity to find the antidote to human hubris and myopia. To activate the potential intelligence which has, in us, gone so astonishingly awry, and to wrest from destiny a purpose and a future still more true and authentic than any we have yet imagined.

Or, we can wait and see who the planet will awaken and endow — to protect it from us.