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Worldpress.com | Nimish Batra
We remember the Human race from their probes to their neighbour worlds, and the handful of their 'outer space' probes that escaped their star system. However, most of our data comes from the reception of their electromagnetic communication signals.
Our scientists surmise the majority of those would have been entertainment signals.
That in itself would have to be an indicator of the eventual decline of the entire race - the fact that leisure activities were performed by others for them, as they watched on, and that the majority of their communication was simply entertainment. It is highly probable that it was passive, one way entertainment.
But we must start at the beginning.
What we know about humans comes mainly from their own self analyses. Our scientists have shown no inclination to go to the uncharted backwaters that the Sol system represents. And it is with good reason. With most active space-faring races achieving space travel only after a million years of sentience, they tend to be mature as their technological evolution parallels biological evolution. But the Human race sprung up from nowhere, had exponential growth, in every sense of the word, and died out just as quickly.
Our scientists ignore the active exploration of any singular, dead world because of the low ROI on such missions that would take at least six months, since the Sol system is more than a handful light years, though not many. The irrelevance of the world is defined by the very fact that despite beginning space travel, they never even established themselves on their satellite, and never set foot on a world beyond it.
Given the fact that they were a space-faring species, but never ventured forth beyond their backyard, we can safely ignore a detailed analysis of the planet - decidedly unique, but too costly on the balance.
Hence, the analysis presented here consists mainly of the interpretation of transmissions received and medium distance studies conducted by teams on other missions that happened to be in the sector.
Since the humans destroyed not just themselves, but also the only life capable planet in the sector (which was an anomaly, since every sector has several), the last remaining reason to visit the dead world also disappears, along with all of the natural life, and any life supporting capability. They not only killed it, they did a thorough job. This collateral damage is very intriguing, but our scientists are occupied by far more interesting problems.
Let us start with the world. It is surmised that in the dominant language of the world, it was variously called as the "turd rock from Sol", "Pale blue dot" and "the pearly globule". they believed that they were a unique planet - rightly so, but, as we shall see, for the wrong reasons. They believed it was because of the immense amount of water and the presence of organic carbon/nitrogen/oxygen cycle based life, that they were unique. However, as we have seen, there are trillions of similar planets with near-identical conditions. Worlds with far more water, far more climate diversity, far more geological variations. The real unique features of the planet were simply it’s explosively diverse biology, and the sudden appearance of a highly intelligent and progressive race.
As has been established by research into what we now call the Markhuseshyiklion cycle, the biological diversity of a planet at any given point in time can be developed on a squircle or supercircle as defined by the Epimilologitracal variables n, m, v, and w.
Hence the Urth, or Earth, as they called their home world, was a very rare example of the maximised area enclosed by the supercircle.
This immense variation is partly the reason of how the human race sprung up - a random branch of the evolution tree that led to a frail bipedal species with an erect walk, surprisingly nimble forearms, sturdy temperature resistance and intelligence.
The combination of these factors in a species of high latent intelligence, in a decidedly hostile environment with perennially chaotic physical conditions and a hostile biology led to rapid development of the brain. After a critical point, came the logical and intellectual freedom (characterised by an individual called "Sucratez" of the Hellenic subgroup).
This was followed by an intense increase in the desire to learn by individuals. But the period also saw a rise in increase of complexity of political systems. The political units called State or Kontriz came into being, where one individual would hold power over the other. Briefly appeared the republican democracy we employ in the Galactic republic, but it was mostly rule-of-one, or “unocracy”.
The democratic republics made a reappearance in about ten thousand generations, and this time, organisations competing for dominance over Kontriz were called Partiz. There were many variations of the system, but at the core, it stayed the same .
The technological evolution of the species was similar to the biological evolution path of the planet. A good start. Then steady growth, then a plateau, before more steady growth, and an explosion followed by an exponential growth period. Before utter destruction.
There were two things that drove technology forward. One was war or conflict. The other was a desire to reduce effort or expenditure. War reasons caused many advances (including the eventual space ventures), however, effort and expense reduction were always consistent motivational factors that drove the technology forward.
The single largest events in the technological growth were
discovery of the wheel, weapons, and fire (believed to be simultaneous); use of local fauna for labour-intensive tasks
the use of metals
the "industriological revolt" - invention of many machines and new sources of usable energy - viz. steam power, discovery of fossil fuels and discovering electricity - and complex machines for automated tasks
the discovery of "plasteeque" or polymers
the discovery of computing devices and simultaneous use of "electronical" devices leading to a self sustained cycle of producing computing machines.
The sudden arrival of the last, i.e. computing devices called "Kompooters" (their equivalent of a computer was a 'user' or 'operator' or 'programmer') actually took away crucial financial resources that would otherwise have gone to space ventures. Also, many a bright young mind were lulled by the allure of having instant results from researching and building these devices, rather than waiting half their tiny lifetimes for confirmation that they were following the right path.
Thus the space-faring age started and ended suddenly - starting with a war, and ending with a surge in computational devices. Ironic, because it is these computational devices that enable most other species to travel vast distances in space, and it is war, that halts space travel.
It is thus, quite sad, that a civilization, indeed a species, so unique as the Humans, who were advancing their technology at a scale unprecedented, could so easily fall into the most avoidable of traps. Instead of using their discoveries and setting themselves free, they simply worked themselves into a quagmire.
It is worth mentioning, at this point, that the sudden explosion that was the Industriological Revolt, was an advance in engineering. A similar advance was seen in many spheres during the time, including
Political organisations where briefly, a new econo-political philosophy called "Sociopath" or "Social path" was visited
Theoretical sciences with their adopting of the non-linear systems as standard, whether for gravitational or electromagnetic forces
Biological science, where the advances were in mainly anatomy and healing sciences
It comes as somewhat a rude shock, that despite many complete evidenciary proofs for the evolution theory, most of the planet did not subscribe to it. We will, of course, remember a similar case in the Vegan system, where in two of the five intelligent species, space travel was impossible due to their incapacity to understand dynamic non linear systems. But that behaviour was hardwired in their brains, and they had remained at the same level of technological development for 20 million years as a consequence.
However, it appears humans have had a tendency to reject proven theories if they did not fit their world view. Which appears to be the case with evolutionary theories.
The humans simply did not allow their observational sciences as much latitude as their theoretical or practical sciences. They did not believe evolution was a fact, even after 200 cycles of the proof being presented!
This is a critical point, because, as we shall see, the humans' understanding of the natural world simply did not increase as fast as their technology, and hence, utilisation of this very world.
They figured out the mathematics that governed evolution too late. Again, it was because they had not been observing their own world. They had been too busy utilising their technology, for what appears from their transmissions, to be 98% entertainment.
It is interesting to note, that half the world had trouble believing evolution even after 200 cycles, because as we shall see, this was a clue to the irrelevance of the observational scientists in the society. It was a pointer that no warning signs would be detected in time. At least none before it was too late.
This pattern of rejecting inconveniently placed theories, though proven, would continue. And this combined with the effects of the grave mistake of humanity - placing their faith in the infallibility of their most recent or most pervasive technology.
They suffered time and again.
With fossil fuels. They never quite understood how they worked until it was necessary to conserve them, and they never began conserving till they were gone. They didn’t know that liquid oils were always composites. By the time they found out, a vast percentage had been crudely burnt. By the time they figured out what the irresponsible consumption of these fuels was doing to their atmosphere and water bodies, the air was near unbreathable. The solid-state waste generated and distributed through flue gases as a by product of fuel consumption wrecked the ecological systems of many areas, and the inner anatomical balance of millions of humans themselves. Yet they never quite came to grips with the need for a better source of energy.
With polymers. They didn’t know how to dispose of them. But they had become ubiquitous, and seemingly irreplaceable. They simply resorted to throwing them away, or burying them, destroying their land and water bodies in the process.
With such a poor record at understanding the implications of their technologies, it seems ill-advised for humans to conceive of nuclear reactions as energy sources, even though they would desperately have needed them. However, discover and use it they did. But in a display of their unique minds, they found a use for them outside of what the rest of the galaxy knew. They used atomically unstable materials in nuclear reactions to form explosive devices for war. And again, no one even tried to understand the consequences of conducting nuclear reactions on their home planet. And this was before they had even designs for space travel.
Thus it does not seem as if the human race would have survived for long. Especially, since their political units Kontriz were regions independent of each other and numerous in number (over 100) and nearly always fighting with each other.
But they did hang on for approximately 300 cycles after discovering nuclear reactions.
The result of these and other illogical and long running mistakes, and in a display of a general lack of foresight and any genuine understanding of their own creations, mankind simply folded under the intense pressure it created on itself and the world around it.
Amongst the many interrelated causes, and, indeed, results, of the pressure, was overpopulation. The years before the Industriological revolt had been marked by a very slow and steady increase in total population. But within 100 cycles following this, the planet was supporting, it is believed, more than a billion humans, which, for its size is simply too many, as a simplified Reimantzen population distribution curve will show us. Even given its uniquely varied and vast flora and fauna reserves, it must have been too much for the ecological balance to be maintained.
The immediate problem, thus, in direct derivation becomes that of decline in available resources. Over time, land available per person would decline. As would critical items such as food and water, and the ever decreasing fossil fuels.
The decline in food resources and land in many areas saw widespread unrest in the various Kontriz affected by overpopulation, and many regions never stabilised after reaching a critical mass.
Water, a precious resource, was not readily available to the hordes that lived inland, and sudden changes in topology and climate robbed them of even rivers and lakes.
These sudden changes, were actually the result of a gradual processes that built up pressure over many cycles and released it all in one go. The topological changes were due to tectonic plate activity - volcanoes, earthquakes, and resulting waves of water called "Soonam". These were in no way caused by humans. But the effects and the aftermath of these were exacerbated by the factors we have already mentioned.
Climate change, however, is a completely different proposition. As it stands, every planet goes through very long and slow periodic changes in it’s climate, such as the ice-age cycle. The humans, however, thanks to the Industriological Revolt, began altering their atmosphere significantly, adding large amounts of Carbon to it simply by burning excessive oil. And even though we cannot see it today, there used to be a layer consisting of Oxygen radicals called Ozone in the atmosphere that served to protect the planet from a very large spectrum of electro-magnetic solar radiation that would have killed off the entire planet. The humans began tearing this layer up, though, as a corollary of their Industriological Revolt.
This slow and methodic ripping of the atmosphere caused the long-range average atmospheric temperatures to rise up, out of sync with the periodic changes. Consequently, even though an ice-age was due in a few hundred cycles, average temperatures rose by several degrees throughout the planet.
Even though this was noted, though quite belated, by many human scientists, there was no real action taken for over a hundred cycles.
The biggest fear for the humans out of this entire "Globule Heating" was that their massive polar caps would melt and the sea would rise by about 6 metres, and many of their coastal inhabitations would be submerged at least partially.
However, it all ended for them just before this event.
The humans knew, it appears, about an impending ice age, and believed the delay was caused by Globule Heating, and would last many generations.
However, they had forgotten, that another cyclic change had been due for several thousand cycles - magnetic field reversal. It was an anticipated change, though not predictable by any means for the human race - lacking the Pluribiuschot Geomagnetodynamic theory - but it was certainly known to be due.
At the height of worldwide tensions, with a majority of Kontriz struggling to cope with population, water and oil scarcity, incursions into demarcated territories by other Kontriz and other issues, a sudden and simultaneous, but unplanned, explosion of nuclear war-devices for testing by multiple Kontriz caused widespread alarm. And within three days, the magnetic field reversal began to occur on the Earth.
They wrongly blamed the simultaneous tests. And they launched war on each other.
With populations surging and every single resource in short supply, the sudden magnetic field reversal was a shock that the already stressed balance of the world could not sustain. Of course, had they studied it, the outcome may have been different. But within days, as many reports of widespread calamity caused by excessive radiation reached world governments, it was believed that this was another effect of the nuclear testing. But the major damage was not consistent with that of fallout. In the absence of any gamma radiation, heavy element traces or lasting radiation, it was clear that pole reversal had caused the ionosphere and magnetosphere to thin out and weaken by about 80%. The solar winds did the damage.
But the Kontriz’s governments simply declared inter-war and that was that. Within two months, the first nuclear war device had exploded as a tactical bomb. The next four weeks saw explosion of every single nuclear device available.
This brought a sad end to the peak of human civilization. So much promise, and yet.
Not even their vaunted computational devices could have predicted such a violent and graceless end. Global temperatures averaged over 330 Kelvin. The icecaps melted. Immediate loss of population was nearly 20% due to the war. The nuclear fallout encompassed the entire planet, and the radiation is still estimated to be present in extremely dangerous amounts on the surface, reaching about 20 metres below the surface. The immediate rise in temperatures saw nearly a quarter of the planet’s remaining species die out. These were the ones that could not withstand the tropical desert like weather all over the planet.
Then came the ice age, helped by the immense amount of dust and radioactive clouds left over from the war, that reflected away the solar radiation - the diamond dust phenomena proven by Shwartzenmyerz. And it was terrible.
Above the land, the ice and snow would kill you. And below it, the radiation. Even the humans never stood a chance, much less the flora and fauna. The entire planet was wiped clean of life in 30 short cycles.
Thus ended the human race.