story musing, mildly nsfw concept
Concept that came to mind: you have the space operas where humans are Special and Key to the Galaxy, right?
This turns that on it's head. Everyone thinks that humanity created a Star Trek style utopia but actually all the aliens are more advanced and manipulating the humans to keep them busy / because they're cute. Probably via some flavor of mind control tech because that's always fun and let's them make a custom "empire" for everyone