I love Libras, and being a Libra. It's not rational, but it's true.

The Octavia Butler insight I was thinking of the other day was that the human tendency to create hiercharchies might be an insurmountable flaw. It's all over her Xenogenesis series. (I had to go look at the book to remember the name of the series -- her books are wonderful, but the names just filter out of my brain like dust -- they're never evocative of the experience of the books for me.)