Canis Ex Machina
It had been 40,000 years since the Great Collapse when our expedition
reached HD56689 B. We knew that before the GC our ancestors had seeded B with
our distant cousins. Would they still be recognizably human in culture. Other
planets we had explored were still physically human with slight variations in size
and color (two-meter adults on Rigel F with coal-black skin, one meter adults
with interesting and sometimes beautiful primary color skin spotting on HD44449
C). These were startling, but we grew to see them as just interesting variants
on the basic human pattern.
What we found too disheartening was civilizational drift.
Some had gone cannibal; the sociologists recorded what they found. After losing
a few sociologists to the pot, we decided this was a civilization best studied
from drones and moved on. Others completely lost technological knowledge; they
had reverted to hunter-gatherer societies with no apparent forward progress in
40,000 years to the state from which they had regressed.
HD56689 B was unique. We could see evidence of an advanced
civilization: large cities; some strangely narrow, unpaved roads; what seemed
to be something like very large bird roosts made of concrete. The population
was clearly shrinking. We contacted the small remaining leadership. After a bit
of struggle getting the AI Translators working with what seemed (t us) a very
primitive language, we pieced together what happened.
Their ancestors separated from the mainstream of human technology
by the GC had started insanely breeding the Earth-origin mammals to do the important
jobs of machines. The swifferhound had a large fine haired tail. It was very
small, about 500 grams. It would climb shelves and use its tail for dusting.
They bred the vacuum shepherd to inhale dirt and dust into
outsized lungs, then exhale the contents outside. They had fairly short lifespans
because of high lung cancer rates.
They bred a transport elephant with a very broad flat back
on which enormous loads could be strapped to the mid-abdominal tusks. (Our biologists
suspected some now lost to them gene editing played a part in that one.)
They bred bats to 40 meters long with commensurate wingspans
that carried humans on transcontinental journeys from batplane roost to
batplane roost. They consumed vast quantities of insects and birds on the way.
This limited them to travel on the only settled continent and outlying islands.
Tractordogs operated the only agricultural machinery they
had still produced. Combines were operated by their canine pilots through the
fields.
It was both unsettling and impressive to see our mighty
species operating almost without technology. So why was the civilization dying.
Some centuries before, at what they now called Peak Animal Helper, an
interspecies virus spread rapidly through all the mammals killing most of them
in one generation. While survivors carried a gene for immunity, the generations
of careful breeding made the survivors weak and less effective at their
functions. As an example, chauffeur dogs sometimes intentionally crashed ground
vehicles so that they could devour the occupants.
We tried to explain the concept of machines as less vulnerable
helpers and dogs as companions, but I fear the concepts would not stick and
future explorers would find empty cities here.
This whole concept was dreamed up by my wife as ww were
returning from a star party in Payette. There has to be a better title for
this. Maske suggestions!
