Chapter 19 - Chariots of the Humans
John had been tasked by Lü Zhi to investigate not necessarily how civilisation got going but to produce a list of different possible scenarios that realistically could have arisen. He hadn't conducted the research himself, he had staff for that. But it was his job to understand their reports. When such planets were discovered that were in a pre-civilised state with a promising candidate species then it would be determined by astro-sociologists which civilisation scenario the planet was closest to. Then they could be nudged in that direction and the resultant wealth would be taxed by the priesthood, aka New Worlds Exploration.
John cleared his throat as he began. "Contrary to what the nature programs will tell you, Earth is not ideal for life. We have, for example, the Atacama desert and several other natural deserts where there is a paucity of life. We have the North and especially the South Pole where the temperatures are significantly below the optimum. There is a general lack of iron in the southern ocean. There are many large areas of land which lack the necessary trace elements for optimum neurological development.
It's worth noting that in order for a civilisation to reach for the stars it has to be able to concentrate resources which are deployed by the chosen few - the elites. For this a civilisation needs to have the haves and have nots. How does a species achieve this discrepancy of ability, rank and opportunity from the one genome? If you had a super abundant planet where every part of it was the perfect place to be then there would be no prime real estate to fight over since the concept is relative. So such a planet may produce a species more advanced than our own but without fighting, without the taking of resources from one area to another there can be no concentration of resources necessary to reach for the stars.
Indeed here on Earth there are plenty of examples where a conquering force has reduced abundance to keep the masses dependent on the very system that is exploiting them. The cutting down of rainforests to destroy peoples food base so they can be coerced into slave labour in mega factories. The use of polished rice in the Philippines, causing berri-berri, the genetic degradation of pet breeds over the last century or so so that the vets can earn more money. The dumbing down of education for the masses, incorrect dietary advice undermining the health of millions, the classification of extremely tough plants and animals that could have fed billions into weeds and pests, affirmative action and childrens television. Fear of sunlight so serotonin and vitamin D levels drop resulting in mental and physical illness. I could go on."
"Excuse me, I can't see the connection between affirmative action and producing a more hierarchical society. It seems to be the opposite."
John replied. "Under communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union people were guaranteed a job. Because of that they didn't have to think, they didn't have to improve processes because their livelihood was provided by state law. The result was economic stagnation eventually followed by collapse. Affirmative action is similar, you are given a position because the state says so. In short you are given the right to be stupid.
In addition to the above we have psychological tendencies which result in hierarchy. We abase ourselves in order to have the hero's we crave. Our intelligence evolved just a little too quickly for our own good. In order to have a large brain size in adulthood our bodies have become neotenized..." A look on confusion went around the room. "Neoteny is the retention of child like features into adult hood and is well documented among humans, at least physically. Even in adulthood we have this yearning for a father and mother figure. This in turn creates more hierarchy."
"In short ladies and gentlemen", interrupted Lü Zhi, "powerful companies, government and mainstream religion offer a service to humanity in giving them the kind of emotional security and fantasy world that they demand from us. We offer the world order. Continue John."
"Possible ways a civilisation could have arisen on Earth is, firstly coastal. The richness of seafood makes coastal areas prime real estate. This can be fought over and due to the positive reinforcement of the victors, that is the rich food enables them to reach their genetic potential, a hierarchy develops. The same is true along the path of migratory animals. Their natural habits and biology of the animals allow for the collection of minerals from a large area. Fire allows the minerals in the bones to be returned to the local soil of the tribe.
Ms Zhi is the expert on the next scenario."
She took the floor and google maps flashed on to the display. "Allow me to introduce to you Mt Hermon which sits on the Syrian / Lebanese border. To start at the beginning, some of you may have heard of the Book of Enoch. This was a religious text that wasn't included in the bible as the Council of Nicea rejected it. Briefly the Book of Enoch describes 200 angels who descend from Heaven and come to the Earth via Mt Hermon. I quote from chapter 8:
The Israelites had come into contact with a few people who were technologically advanced. The phrase metals of the earth hints of progression beyond the Bronze Age. Furthermore in Chapter 51 it states:
This describes a time before Noah, who lived 3,500 BC. The European Iron Age did not start until 1,200 BC. They were over 2,000 years in advance and it wasn't just in one direction, they were advanced in multiple directions."
Simon queried, "But the geography surrounding Mt Hermon is quite compact, which does not lend itself to an isolated community and is Mt Hermon big enough to avoid inbreeding?"
"Good questions Simon and I am getting to them. First we have to come up with a plausible way Mt Hermon could have sustained a population. At 2,814 metres Mt Hermon is capped in ice. This ice expands and contracts with the seasons, which in turn grinds the minerals out of rock giving rise to mineral rich water. Furthermore there was far greater tree cover in those days. So lets say in times long gone by, around the time of the stone age they were hunting animals for food on Mt Hermon. The animals would learn to avoid the scent of humans. How do you reduce your scent? you compost your waste. If done right, for scent reduction, its more effective than a flush toilet. What do you need to compost - leaf litter and there were plenty of cedar trees to provide it. What is leaf litter, energy captured by the sun. So the humans drink mineral rich water, have mineral rich waste and in the composting process bring minerals and energy together. This produces lots of critters and in older composts, where the human waste has been fully assimilated, there is no smell and no disease. The most plentiful critters are going to be earthworms, snails and slugs. Throw in some acute extreme hunger, or the sport of a humiliated prisoner and very quickly you discover that these things are highly nutritious food.
Once this step is discovered it is a matter of finding withholding periods and that urine would have a shorter withholding period than feces. In addition composting produces a certain amount of heat. Since these composts would be added to bit by bit then they would have been cold composting rather than hot composting. All the same these cold composts would have generated enough heat to have not frozen, especially when under an insulative cover of snow. So you would have had access to live food all year round with very little effort each day.
So you have this mineral rich well fed population with time on their hands and they develop this technology. Starting off with better nutrition, stronger bodies, quicker minds and the high ground provided by the mountain they can very successfully defend their territory against the low landers. Of course as their technology develops so does their advantage. Apart from the yuck factor in their diet - which would be gone within a generation - the whole set up sounds almost like heaven. But they have one problem: inbreeding. Natural selection would have taken care of those with serious medical flaws like weak internal organs. The fools would have been either killed or exiled in such a culture of intellectual excellence. This then would have left those who are functional but ugly. Perhaps looking something like George Soros, Angela Merkel, Henry Kissenger, the Rockefellers or Rasputin.
Of course beauty and ugly are relative terms and through the eyes of these people the young women of the low landers would have appeared extremely fair. However since their numbers were smaller they would have found it difficult to invade since they would have to give up the high ground to do so. However as time progressed their technological lead widened and the low land women appeared more beautiful. When the two hundred ‘angels’ descended they were able to infatuate the women with what they could create. The sexual jealousy of the high lander women could easily have created the first feminists. What about the children resulting from these fornications? When bloodlines cross the result is usually stronger offspring who are likely to have turned their backs on traditional ways for the glitz and knowledge of their mountain fathers, especially since men had authority in those days. As these children grew in number and years they would have outcompeted the original low landers for food and territory. So the traditional people would have become conquered and have been ever since.
Since the low landers represented an obvious enslavement opportunity and since the easiest way to keep an eye on subjects in a pre-industrial society is to cut down trees you are left with the problem of how to feed them. “The mother of wheat”, Triticum dicoccoides, was discovered in 1905 by Aaron Aaronsohn on the eastern slopes of Mt Hermon. The cutting of the trees represented the casting out of the Garden of Eden. To quote Genesis 3:19
Bread, of course, is made from wheat. Let us bear in mind here that we are not in the business of being accurate historians. Suffice to say that in another time with similar climate and geography these events could have unfolded. If a potential scenario like this is beginning on another planet then it would be easy to feed in a steady trickle of technology saying now you can do this and now you can do that while in the meantime psychologically enslave the low landers with progressive liberalism. We will slice their society into mutually jealous groups from perceived advantages and persecution indoctrinated to them by the media. We shall not let their old wounds heal over time and if they have none we shall invent them. We shall be their fallen angels who lift them up into paranoid political correctness."
"What if the other planets mountainous region is too large for inbreeding, you know like the Himalayas?", asked Simon.
"Then we can either mine or nuke it down to size. The best evidence, should any be needed, that we are not ourselves the subjects of an alien race.", Lü Zhi said with a rare smile.