Dear Jeff,
It is nice meeting you again in 2014 FQXi Contest. I just finished to read your short, but beautiful and particular, Essay. Here are my comments/questions:
1) I agree that "We are not the fastest or strongest and perhaps not even the most intelligent creatures on this planet". I think we are the ones having, perhaps, the better averaged mixture of them.
2) Concerning your statement that "all systems have some goal, some way of trying out possible solutions to that goal and a way of recording the result", what you think of the Universe as a whole system? I think you should be an endorser of anthropic principle.
3) I find intriguing your statement that "the large mass movements of history are made by this intelligent system of our culture".
4) Sadly, misunderstandings on Einstein's Theory of Relativity are not only in fictions. Some of those misunderstandings are sometimes also in FQXi Contests...
5) I completely agree with your endorsing fusion power. We need it for our future.
In general, your Essay was a pleasant reading. Thus, I will give you an high score.
Good luck in the Contest.
Cheers,
Ch.