I reckon you covered this really well. (I never considered whether they’d actually got responses from non-teachers. D’oh.)

I really like this paragraph:
“Yes, I love being a mutated monkey. I’m not embarrassed to admit my ancestors were literal tree huggers. I think humanity should be looking back at where we started and saying, “Isn’t evolution amazing? I wonder when we’ll notice the next step. Where will the future of our species go?””

The real world is quite wonderful enough, you’d think, but it must seem empty to some people, so they fill it with childish dreams, as you say.