What does make you think that? Have you seen or experienced something like this before?
Your thought/ idea makes perfect sense to me and there surely is more potential to transfer ideas/ ideologies/ etc more compact than we do most of the time. I too, don't believe in good and evil humans but that everyone is capable of everything (decision-, not skill-wise). But 1000 words would be quite frustrating, because if I (a random on the internet/ on a party/ or elsewhere) am able to 'flip' you, what's gonna stop the next random dude from flipping you back over. If it's that easy to make you change your opinion, it is not sustainable. As I'm writing this, I realized, this is the very reason I stopped discussing with anyone with whom I don't get value out of myself as well. It's just not worth it - at least for people that aren't close to me.
Less controversially, I think there's good in almost any idea that a speaker really believes in (ignoring bad faith actors) and if you can make people see, truly, your point of view and mesh it to theirs, you can both agree, even if you both abandon your original stance. So, nobody can really bring everyone 'to themselves' which is unstable as you say, but they can both find some average of their opinions that looks an awful lot like convincing people of a course of action or idea. The catch in my mind is that the words move you both, not just the listener. You can see it happen in real time in this thread.
Maybe I lacked structure in my initial comment and you're referring to my statement about value in dialogs/ discussions that I briefly mentioned. That said, I totally agree with what you say here. There are numerous ways to get something valuable out of an interaction. The actually exchange of information can be just one part. Observing how you or the other reacts/ feels/ etc. to an impulse (in whatever form), can be eye-opening as well. And so much more. Human interaction is complicated, nevertheless, sometimes I just don't feel like it's worth the energy - ofc not our little chit chat here (;
For a moment I thought there was going to be a twist at the end where you describe the people who stayed on Earth.
- On interstellar travel, and how completely bonkers it would be to ride on a steadily-degrading spaceship for a decade, with just enough fuel to stop when you get there, and no more. And what it might take to get our civilization to care enough to try (seems like a terrible calamity is the only way).
- I firmly believe that there is a sequence of words that, if constructed properly for an individual, (perhaps even less than 1000 words), would convince anyone of anything. I try to think of short sequences of very-convincing arguments, mostly to no avail. I think about this a lot when politicians ramble on and on -- just not creative enough. I also think about this a lot when people talk about why they believe something, and I try to see why it is so convincing to them.
- The future of robotics and AI. This one I think about a ton. That future is biology, I'm afraid, but metal-bots will always have a place.
And, like chewz said below, I also have a list of projects I can bounce back to.