It’s Thursday. Since this is my blog I have made a Magisterial Decree that I would write something lighter than many of the other missives that I have graced the World Wide Web with.
So let it be written; So let it be done.
This morning as I was journaling, my mind drifted to something that’s been on every one’s minds. Well, maybe not the GOP. But, that’s a story for another time. That thing is the possibility of a Mass Extinction Event occurring in the not too distant future. (See, I told you it would be lighter subject matter!) What this event might look like is anyone’s guess. We can choose from Climate Change to Nuclear Devastation. There is always the possibility that a chunk of rock and ice from the outer reaches of the solar system could smash New York City. Or, just maybe the Earth herself will simply open up like she’s had enough and finish us off.
What isn’t discussed too often, though, is what might happen after such an event.
There have been 5 Mass Extinction Events over the course of the Earth’s existence. They have been caused by diverse conditions. From catastrophic climate swings to the big one that finished off the dinosaurs. That one, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago, reset the evolutionary trajectory of the world. The giants who ruled were reduced to stone and dust. Whereas, the small mammals who effectively hid, evolved into us. Pretty slick!
I wonder, though, what the next event will change. Will mammals survive? If the sun is hidden behind a layer of thick atmospheric gases, that seems unlikely. Other terrestrial critters my also find survival difficult.
What if the next evolutionary step takes place under the sea? What would the world look like at the end of another 65 million years of aquatic evolution? Rather than land based animals growing into humans again, what if our gilled and scaled friends became true Merple? A very advanced submarine life that became sentient. These creatures might learn how to control the vast currents of the oceans in ways that could control the climate around the world. Of course, by that time the land masses that we know would likely be different. The tectonic plates of the world slowly returning to some future version of Pangaea. So, the oceans would also look much different.
I know that some of you are thinking, “Wouldn’t it be more likely that the mammalian sea life that we know today would take the next step toward sentience? Not if the air breathers like dolphins and whale couldn’t continue to breathe a possibly toxic atmosphere. We must consider that.
No, I think fish make that leap.*
Now, what if two lines of evolution take place. A sea based one and a land based one. Would one serve the other? If, like I speculated, and enlightened civilization of Merple learned to control the currents, and therefore the climate, would they be regarded as gods? Creatures who could decide where the rain fell and the crops grew might be seen as divine. It wouldn’t be the first time that climate gods were worshiped.
But, we also need to consider the fact that the Merple can’t walk on land. Would that give the land-dwellers the upper hand? As we have witnessed in our run on the planet, land-dwellers can learn to travel on and under the oceans. Might that allow them to retaliate and control those in their coral castles under the water?
Or, would they learn to cooperate? The Merple helping the land-locked species by providing a suitable climate. And, the land-dwellers providing from the bounty of the land food and assistance with whatever needs the Merple might have.
I’d like to think that this would be the outcome. Species living in caring relationships knowing that they could harm the other at a moment’s notice. But, choosing not to.
*No, Q people. The reptilians don’t win. It’s the fish. Guaranteed.
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