A Darwinian Nightmare

(This is a re-pub from a couple of years ago)

Originally they were intended to establish the first dependent colony in the new  frontier of Mars.  There was not much which would have recommended their sophisticated and complex ship to the original Conestoga wagons, but the concept was the same.  Go to Mars, carve out the first steps of an envisioned future space port, a way point for further galactic or even inter-galactic travel.  Settle down, have children, become the space-age equivalent of the Mayflower.  Even the title of their mission, Plymouth Venture, pointed back to those nearly forgotten years when the promise of a new land, new beginnings and the opportunity to be involved in a dream of enormous potential claimed the imaginations of so many.

The key concept was "a dependent colony."  Mars held no immediate prospect of independently supported human life.  For the envisionable future, the colony would have required a steady stream of logistical support, rotation back to the "main land" for some, infusion of new talent and gene pool expansion.  The ultimate hope always lay beyond Mars, beyond Pluto, even beyond the galaxy.  Somewhere, out there, was another planet whose delicately balanced ecosystem would approximate that of earth.  Somewhere, out there, the gigantic experiment that constituted the infinitely complex and ultimately fragile nature of that insignificant rock orbiting a medium sun of no particular consequence, might have been duplicated or perhaps duplicated to some approximate extent such that man, by application of his powers, could bring it whatever distance remained necessary to support life.

All that dream was shattered ten generations ago.  No one knows exactly where the plague began.  The similarities to the Black Plague of the 14th century were too close to even think about.  Then it had been the newly established and highly efficient trade routes linking the Mongol empire to the various nations of the Western world which served to nearly destroy human life on the planet.  Then, as is always the case, there was a  phase lag between scientific knowledge and technical achievement and it  proved that such a lag could be deadly. Silently then the fleas had spread the poison which apart from the tightly linked and even more highly successful trading routes, would have limited the decimation to the closed communities of the orient. It became the most terrible disaster ever to wreak havoc on the earth. KIlling more people in a year in Western Europe alone than the cumulative total of the whole AIDS epidemic which happened later on in the 20th and 21rst centuries.  More people died, more cities were destroyed than in any of the great wars of even those terrible days. Only the remaining relative isolation of the pre-technological age finally halted the ravaging disease.  Only the closing of cities, the retreat into enclaves of feudalism, limited the destruction.  It had been a close thing then.

But, ten generations ago, a mere 400 years or so, that retreat had been impossible.  The complex network of a true global economy, global travel, global communication had so interwoven the earth's population that the initiation of a highly contagious, rapidly mutating, drug resistant virus could not be stopped.  Medical technology could not extrapolate beyond the observed mutations.  There was no way to catch it before it got there.  Inoculations proved worthless.  The Darwinian processes operating in what seemed to be an infinitely compressed timescale at microscopic and unseen levels produced organisms which developed infinitely complex and deadly forms suited  and prosperous to air, water, earth, organic and inorganic media.  There was truly no place to hide.  The maxim "survival of the fittest" showed no inclination towards generosity  in granting suvival to the most worthy. 

Human beings and all other animals on the earth, were simply outclassed in survival skills.  And now all that remained of a once teeming planet, was an dull, wind swept hulk devoid of the so called "higher life forms.  The air, the seas, the rocks and dirt, all still teeming with the still mutating virus.  At least, as far as Richard, the last remaining occupant of the Plymouth Venture knew.  Perhaps the virus, after destroying all other life, had ultimately consumed itself.  Who knows?  At this point, who cares.  The old earth was forever gone and he would not go back even if it were possible in what few moments remaining of his life that he could.

Ten generations had gone by.  The original Plymouth Ventures Crew had, after a period of shock and grief, simply settled on what appeared to be the only option possible.  It was beyond the capacity of their small colony and provisions to ever translate Mars into anything approaching a sustainable environment.  The problems were too great. But the Plymouth Venture itself provided enough quantities of dirt, organic materials, and other such things to reduce the margin of survival down to at least, a finite possibility.  They would have to strictly govern their population.  They would have to diligently conserve resources.  They would have to turn their sophisticated equipment and scientific skills to the task of immediate survival on the ship rather than on Mars. 

And, what they could do was accelerate the original plan.  Turn the ship outward.  See, if generations in the future, based on the distances to be traveled and the speed possible to be attained, if one day the dream might come true and a new home for the human race discovered.  Originally they had no idea that they might become an ark instead of a Mayflower.  But circumstances had dictated otherwise. What other choice did they have? 

And so, they departed and simply aimed their ship toward the stars.

Over the generations that followed there had been periods of excitement and a despair.  Many social problems, survival problems, psychological problems had arisen and had been more or less handled. But what became apparent some time ago, was that the clock was winding down and there was simply no way it could last forever.  The closed community was not infinitely self-sustainable.  Delay was possible but there would come a point when the deterioration of supplies forcing ever greater restrictions on numbers in subsequent generations, would finally reach the point where, even if a suitable planet was found, the colony would die.

That threshold was reached years ago.  And the morbid psychology of the situation had taken its toll.  People no longer cared.  There was no vision to pursue and no purpose in much else.  Life had lost its meaning and all that was left was for each individual to deal with whatever time he or she had left in whatever way that person would or could respond.  That had been the worst period  of all.   By the time it was over, the already reduced population had been degraded even more.  And the decline had become even more precipitous.  Now, he was all that was left and even now, he could feel the last few moments of his own life stealing from his body.

In the course of their travels, they had developed sensors and other equipment for evaluating the various planets they had encountered. During the early high days of giddy anticipation, as they had sent out transmissions, "pinging" the distant galaxies, surveying the various worlds they had passed.  The sum total of human knowledge about the infinite universe had dramatically increased.  Their computers had downloaded huge stocks of information from earth before the last transmission had ceased and they had added wonderful things to it. They knew more than their long dead scientific fathers had never dreamed.

But the conclusion of the matter was clear.  The Darwinian process for life formation was simply too delicate.  The probabilities required to support the chains which were necessary to simultaneously develop eco systems and life forms to inhabit those ecosystems were just too great for it to happen more than once, even in an infinite universe and in infinite time.  It is simply a matter of multiplying a very small fraction by itself over thousands and thousands of iterations.  The precise balance between heat and cold, the placement of the planet about its sun, the stirring of the winds, the mix of moisture and dry, the whole "system" problem of balancing a basket ball on a pin while roller skating in a hurricane - given time and dedication, it can be done, but the odds of doing it twice are pretty much impossible.

And so - the truth of improbability finally dawned on the inhabitants of the Plymouth Venture.  The original romantic vision did not take into account the ultimate truth of Darwinian mathematics. There simply was no other home.  And the final harsh reality was now upon the human race.  When he closed his eyes, and even now his vision was beginning to blur, the vast beauty of the universe, the glory of its suns, the brilliance of its colors, the wonderful symmetry of its physics, would lose all their ultimate meaning.  There would simply be no one left to appreciate it.

Thus, as Death began its inevitable final conquest, Richard's eyes clouded and dimmed.  But it was not Death which produced the tear that silently and slowly worked its way down his face.  That came from Richard himself.  It was the final human response to a universe devoid of purpose and meaning.

   

Comments

[beepbeepitsme]

You say Platonic - I say Greek.

[Gadfly]

Re: Are you sure you want to quote homosexual poets? What? No stoning to death today?

I'm out of practice. I haven't done any stoning in well over a fortnight.

It would be pretty hard to quote Socrates and be prejudiced against Auden. I don't think he and Alcibiades had a purely "Platonic" relationship.

Of course, I quoting Auden is not far removed from you quoting Kipling.

Recessional by R. K.
(with a nod toward your ANZAC posting)

God of our fathers, known of old --
Lord of our far-flung battle line --
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies --
The Captains and the Kings depart --
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away --
On dune and headland sinks the fire --
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe --
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard --
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.

[beepbeepitsme]

I prefer this one.

"Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table." - W. H. Auden

Are you sure you want to quote homosexual poets? What? No stoning to death today?

[Gadfly]

One of my favorite commentaries on the despair of the human condition (apart from Christ, of course).

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

W. H. Auden, "Musee Des Beaux Arts"
To view "Icarus" (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/icarus.jpg)

[beepbeepitsme]

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son."
- Rudyard Kipling

[Gadfly]

Re: I don't believe I suggested that Plato spoke latin, the concern is often expressed in latin.

It was just a feeble attempt at humor.

"To be man means to reach toward being God. Or if you prefer, man fundamentally is the desire to be God."
Sartre, Exist. & Hum. Emot. pg. 63

[beepbeepitsme]

I don't believe I suggested that Plato spoke latin, the concern is often expressed in latin.

(Who will watch the watchers. Or who will guard the guardians.)

"Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men." -
Plato

(I don't need to be ruled, so Plato can take a running leap.)

[Gadfly]

Re: The essential problem, (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?), was first posed by Plato in the Republic.

I had no idea that Plato spoke Latin!!!!! You got me there, I neither speak nor read it.

Great quote though - "the noble lie"

" ..the superhuman and divine is absolutely incapable of falsehood... God is perfectly simple and true both in word and deed; he changes not; he deceives not, either by sign or word, by dream or waking vision."

Plato, The Republic (phrased as questions with the affirmative understood).

[beepbeepitsme]

The essential problem, (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?),
was first posed by Plato in the Republic.

The perfect society as described by Socrates, relies on laborers, slaves, and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city. The question is put to Socrates, who will guard the guardians? or, who will protect us against the protectors?

Plato's answer to this is: they will guard themselves against themselves. We must tell the guardians a noble lie.

The noble lie is religion.

[beepbeepitsme]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[Gadfly]

H. L. Mencken in ?( No fair using quotes unless it is from works you have actually read.....)

"To this noble purpose (acquiring justice, temperance and wisdom) the man of understanding will devote the energies of his life. And in the first place, he will honor studies which impress these qualities on his soul..."

Plato, The Republic

[beepbeepitsme]

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence." -
Henry Louis Mencken

[Gadfly]

Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!
Earth's returns
For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!
Shut them in,
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!
Love is best.

Robert Browning, Love Among The Ruins.

[beepbeepitsme]

Life is but a song. (La la al la la)

[Gadfly]

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors,
and laugh at them in our turn?"
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

[beepbeepitsme]

The meaning of life is life.

Not very complicated.