Rocks to Rockets

The solar system gyrates through Timespace, completing a revolution of our spiral galaxy in the time it takes for some short-lived stars to be born and die. We spin round and round, up and down within the narrow window-plane of the Milky Way and it’s inevitable that we bump into things – including other solar systems – from time to time, despite our best efforts at steering.

            Imagine if you will that all things are conscious and all material objects are aware after their own fashion – that the Earth, (the person known as Terra, Tya, Gaia, Geb to our ancestors) is a being a lot like yourself. S/he travels along with her teeming, myriad children clinging to her and every now and then someone throws rocks at her.

           Sometimes these rocks hit their target and when they do, many of her experimental life forms are killed and recycled. A couple of times everything alive on Earth has been sterilised except for tiny extremophile organisms living in the crust or deep oceans. Many times, almost all life on land has been exterminated and the ocean life decimated. It takes a long time for more complex and interesting organisms (new sensory organs for the Earth) to evolve each time.

            Recently, the Great Mother evolved some lifeforms that could more easily withstand the colder times prevalent for the last five million years or so. They’re hairy as well as warm-blooded and are very adaptable, with high metabolic rates. And some are good at picking up rocks, banging them together and throwing them. These are traits she has been developing for a long time. To stop the rocks hitting her she had to develop organ(ism)s that were good at handling rocks.

            The apes who were adept at rock throwing soon found that by tying rocks to sticks they could throw them further. They learned how to sharpen  rocks by banging them together. These sticks and rocks could make music and transmit messages, too. From these rocks and sticks all human technology developed. 

            Mentality was important as well. How could the mother encourage these monkeys to evolve in the appropriate direction? How could she make them throw these rocks further? 

            The monkeys learned to hate one another - and how to kill each other at greater and greater distances. They developed their languages and their sense of separation from each other and the Earth. They learned that not all rocks were the same; some were harder, some broke into sharper shards, some were malleable. Sticks could be thrown further by woomeras or bows.

            After only a couple of million years the apes were ready for bigger things. They prospered and multiplied across the Earth, building bigger and bigger piles of rocks – both for ammunition and to hide from other rock-throwers within. Banging the rocks together taught them about fire, sculpture, metallurgy and chemistry. Before too long they were building ROCKets and mounting highly refined rocks on their enlarged spear-points – the Great Mother had subtly affected their languages to subliminally keep them on the development track she needed them to take. Chemical rocks were mounted on the rockets at first, and then nuclear ones.

            They developed the pathology necessary to attack one another continually. How else could the Mother convince the monkeys to defend her? To poison their environment, to dig into their mother’s flesh, to slaughter the creatures most like themselves? Psychotic and schizophrenic, they eventually hated themselves enough to build ROCKets with nuclear warheads with which they could attack themselves right across the globe – and beyond.

            And then they became so smart they began to consider the real problem – asteroids – big rocks - and to imagine and create less dangerous and primitive ways of deflecting them. We’ve almost evolved as far as Gaia needed us to. We can almost protect her as well as she wants us to. The rest is up to us. The dawn of post-terrestrial humanity is upon us and it’s time to imagineer a future with peace and prosperity.

 Which way do we want to go?

- R.A.

 The following is from echomixednuts:  

A frog that croaked

 

I have a short story for you that has some moral lesson on it. I found this on a piece of paper somewhere in Jerusalem Israel, five years ago. In case you were the writer of this short story, please let me know.

Meantime here’s the story. “A frog that croaked”

A group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, they agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.

Unwillingly to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs begun to jump with all their might. Some of the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frog wouldn't be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible.

The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy to give up, since they were already as good as gone. The two frogs continued jumping with all of their might, and after several hours of this, were quite weary.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellow frogs. Exhausted, he quitely resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could, although his body was wracked with pain and he was quite exhausted. Once again is companion begun yelling at him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and, that he sprung from the pit... Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his freedom and gathering around him asked, "Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?"

The astonished frog explained to Thom that he was deaf, and as he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought that they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to all odds.

 - http://echomixednuts.blogspot.com  

images - http://www.spacedaily.com/images/2001-ape-bones-bg.jpg

http://sciencegraphics.net/images/astronomy/asteroids.jpg

tags: asteroid  gaia  conscious  civilization  rockets  impact  evolution  monkeys  uplift  evolve  

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