"Not with sticks and stones, but with a barrage of patent lawsuits. We will have to tell the aliens how we used this great system of socially legitimate torture to slowly wear him down over the years."

Author fails to note that the Wrights were doing most of the suing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war

"The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who previously had been generally regarded as heroes. Critics said the brothers' actions may have hampered the development of aviation, and compared their actions unfavorably to European inventors, who worked more openly"

Holy shit, great writing! Who is this author?

    I do not think they will forgive us. I am not sure we should forgive ourselves.

I mean, I think idea is a simplification. Thompson spent all his time building things, just that one had outsized impact it's a power law thing.

But yeah, great, hard hitting, ending.