Just as I passed the halfway point in my current research paper, family interruptions led to a very strange conversation about space exploration and conspiracy theories.

Yes, this strangeness which I am about to reveal is all my fault. I am easily swayed from my paper on CIA interventions, and my creative energy has been begging me to focus on something utterly ridiculous.

So with all the seriousness I could muster, I informed my family that a combined space army of Imperial Storm Troopers and Klingons were poised to attack. The Death Star was in position, cloaked, and ready to fire on the Earth. If, however, it failed to cause magnificent destruction, an enormous herd of Tribbles would be let loose on humanity, thereby eradicating the sanity of the Earth population and making Earth irrelevant to the intergalactic order.

This bizarre conversation, and sorely needed break from my less-than uplifting historical inquiry, inspired an odd thought.

Life is really just a conspiracy to bring about our eventual death.