Khudros
17-04-2005, 10:08
I was thinking of writing a short story combining Anthropology and Science Fiction, and Patra's thread seemed a cool place to begin. This is the premise I was thinking along the lines of:
Archaeology tells a remarkable tale of the processes leading to the development of man. From its record we have learned that hominid evolution for the past five million years has been marked by continual supplantation and indirect xenocide. From Australopithecus afarensis onward, subsequent generations of obligate bipeds have completely replaced their immediate predecessors in the neverending competition for resources, leaving a trail of extinction in their wake.
Homo Sapiens is no exception. The Human Diaspora of 50,000 y/a heralded the simultaneous disapearance of Erectis in Asia, Neanderthalis in Europe, and Ergaster in Northern Africa. Our ascension necessitated their extinction, but how they met their end remains a mystery. Was it due to a simple competition for resources, as was the case for earlier hominids such as Habilus and Heidelbergensis? Or was the cause of their demise due to a more sinister process, such as tribal exterminations? Given the human propensity for intraspecial genocide, the latter possibility has yet to be dismissed by Anthropologists.
If we as a species did indeed dispatch the previous generation of hominids in such a fashion, what is to say the next generation will be kinder to us?
ok hopefully not too many people have fallen asleep reading that part.
That's the theoretical backdrop for the story. The setting occurs two thousand years from the present day, after a second human diaspora has populated the heavens. For 1500 years humans have expanded unchecked into the vastness of space, gradually losing contact with one another.
If there is one thing the fossil record has taught us, it is that expansion and isolation when in combination are inescapably accompanied by speciation.
And so it is that as the sixth millenium of human civilization comes to an end, humanity is confronted with a seemingly insurmountable threat to its very survival. A new hominid, classified as Homo Proclivus, has evolved from us and fully matured into a separate species. Endowed by nature with unmistakable intellectual advantages translated into technological superiority, they now seek tacitly to eradicate and replace their primitive Sapien brethren. As the disparate populations of man are annihilated one by one, extinction draws perilously close, and the human race is forced to confront its volatile past in an attempt to weather the coming storm. Despite the political and ethical discord, one thing is tacitly recognized: Humans cannot defeat the Proclivan advance; they can only survive it.
Archaeology tells a remarkable tale of the processes leading to the development of man. From its record we have learned that hominid evolution for the past five million years has been marked by continual supplantation and indirect xenocide. From Australopithecus afarensis onward, subsequent generations of obligate bipeds have completely replaced their immediate predecessors in the neverending competition for resources, leaving a trail of extinction in their wake.
Homo Sapiens is no exception. The Human Diaspora of 50,000 y/a heralded the simultaneous disapearance of Erectis in Asia, Neanderthalis in Europe, and Ergaster in Northern Africa. Our ascension necessitated their extinction, but how they met their end remains a mystery. Was it due to a simple competition for resources, as was the case for earlier hominids such as Habilus and Heidelbergensis? Or was the cause of their demise due to a more sinister process, such as tribal exterminations? Given the human propensity for intraspecial genocide, the latter possibility has yet to be dismissed by Anthropologists.
If we as a species did indeed dispatch the previous generation of hominids in such a fashion, what is to say the next generation will be kinder to us?
ok hopefully not too many people have fallen asleep reading that part.
That's the theoretical backdrop for the story. The setting occurs two thousand years from the present day, after a second human diaspora has populated the heavens. For 1500 years humans have expanded unchecked into the vastness of space, gradually losing contact with one another.
If there is one thing the fossil record has taught us, it is that expansion and isolation when in combination are inescapably accompanied by speciation.
And so it is that as the sixth millenium of human civilization comes to an end, humanity is confronted with a seemingly insurmountable threat to its very survival. A new hominid, classified as Homo Proclivus, has evolved from us and fully matured into a separate species. Endowed by nature with unmistakable intellectual advantages translated into technological superiority, they now seek tacitly to eradicate and replace their primitive Sapien brethren. As the disparate populations of man are annihilated one by one, extinction draws perilously close, and the human race is forced to confront its volatile past in an attempt to weather the coming storm. Despite the political and ethical discord, one thing is tacitly recognized: Humans cannot defeat the Proclivan advance; they can only survive it.