A blip on the Horizon.
“This is Explorer 12 to Mission control. Over”
“Mission Control to Explorer 12 we read you. Over.”
“Explorer 12 requesting permission to return home. Over.“
“Ah, that’s a negative Explorer 12. You have been re-routed to the Solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy. Proceed and await new instructions. Over.”
“Explorer 12, we roger that Mission control, over and out.”
The captain of the vessel turned to his crew members, “Shit. They’re sending us down to that experimental place.”
****
“Look, when we created Pluto we thought we were starting something new”, said one of the scientists.
“It was new, but the experiments after that just used the same formula in different settings. The race is flawed”, said another scientist.
“They’re not flawed, it’s the environment we put them in”, shouted another of the professors as the discussion started to heat up.
“Then why do they keep making the same mistakes when we put them in the best possible environment? The environment for Experiment And Research Tracking Humans is perfect. They have everything they need. And what’s happening? They are going to blow themselves up after only a few million years. The same as PLUTO, and the same as VENUS. It is not the environment, it’s the race itself I tell you”, finished the second man, thumping the table to emphasize his point.
“Alright, okay. I think we need to calm down a bit and review the data logically and unemotionally. This is not the time to be getting upset over an experiment. Let’s just decide rationally”, the leader of the group tried to impose some order on the meeting.
“Now who will report for us on Pluto?” he asked.
“Well I suppose I will since I started that one”, said the first scientist.
“People Living Under Total Observation was an attempt to create a race of creatures similiar to ourselves. We gave them similiar physical and mental attributes to ourselves. We provided them with all the necessities for life on that planet, and left them to develop. We kept them under strict observation and refrained from intervening in their development.”
“They progressed steadily, moving from individual beings to social animals to full civilisation. When they mastered their environment, they mastered their basic needs of food and protection. They then started to use their mental powers for different needs. They developed systems for communication and transportation, and learnt to subdue the animals we placed on the planet. They were able to devote their time to research and the pursuit of knowledge. They progressed well in all areas.”
“However, somewhere along the way they started to deviate from the path of advancement. As their population grew, new problems arose like overcrowding, disease and a lack of resources. This meant that some of them fell behind the others and a division occurred between those that were living comfortably and those that were just surviving.”
“From then on it degenerated until the point when their problems overcame them. They fell out with each other, which resulted in war, the annihilation of the race and the prospect of the planet being uninhabitable. We had to abandon the experiment and start again elsewhere”, he concluded and sat down.
“So you still believe it was their fault? Don’t you even consider the possibility that it was the environment? That we gave them too much? That it was too easy for them?” asked the leader of the group.
“If we had made it harder one of two things would have happened. Either they would not have overcome the environment, or it would have taken them longer, and they would still end up at the point where they destroyed themselves. It just may have taken an extra million years or so.”
“Maybe not. They may have been changed by the hardship imposed on them by the environment.”
“That may also be so, but I doubt it. We created them remember. In any case we will never know because the planet is now a wasteland, and they made it that way.”
“Alright. Well I think that covers the two points of view on PLUTO. Let us review VENUS next. That was the next experiment.” the leader of the delegation said.
“Well the Very Exciting New Utopian Society was also a failure”, one of the scientists spoke up.
“Basically the same thing happened. We changed the conditions a little just to vary the inputs, but the outputs were the same. They ended up blowing themselves up. They thought technology was wonderful when they started to fully grasp it. It took them a few million years to evolve and about a thousand to start destroying the planet with their machines and wasteful ways. They did so much damage we had to totally cleanse the whole planet. They left it in a shocking state”, the scientist finished his brief account of the experiment on VENUS.
“That should have alerted us to the flaws inherent in the race. We need to go back and change their makeup. There is something in there that makes them genetically self-destructive. We have erred”, another of the scientists added.
“I still think we have made it too easy for them. You have to give them some hardships”, concluded one of the group.
“Hardships! hardships!! We started them off as apes! How much tougher can you get? They had to learn how to make fire with instruments. They can’t just do it like we can. If you think we can make it any harder or more primitive than that I don’t what we can do”, one of the group said, exasperated.
“Alright. Well let’s try to wrap this up. Explorer 12 is on its way down there now and we must give them some instructions. Who will review EARTH for us?” the leader of the scientists asked.
“I will”, said one of the men at the table. “Experiment And Research Tracking Humans, known as EARTH, was to be our final experiment with this human race we designed. We decided this time we would intervene though, rather than leave them to their own devices.”
“We started them off as apes, as before, but gave them a helping hand every now and again. At one stage we even took all the apes away and redeveloped their locomotive powers, craniums and dental apparatus, just to hurry them along a bit. Then we placed them back on the planet. Now the humans are researching their past and they can’t explain the giant evolutionary leap we imposed. I don’t think they will ever figure that one out”, he smiled to himself.
“We have visited the planet often”, he continued, “which amused our astronauts until recently. The humans were so primitive the astronauts used to enjoy terrorising them. However the last few hundred years the humans have advanced a lot, and now seem to suspect our existence. However I stray from the track.”
“We have tried many times on this planet to achieve success. Many civilisations have started, only to head down the same path as the experiments on the other planets. I refer here to MU, Atlantis and Rapanui in particular, although we have had many others dotted about the planet, remnants of which still exist today by the way.”
“Anyway the current tribes are going the same way. They are the most technologically advanced tribe ever to exist on the planet. I say technologically advanced because other tribes have been more spiritually advanced, notably the Egyptians and the Amer-indians. This tribe has degenerated faster than some of the others, without reaching previous levels of knowledge and intelligence. If you compare their astral travel and space capabilities to that of the Egyptians or the Indian tribes and you will see what I mean.”
“They are consuming the resources we gave them without replacing them. Indeed, I fear they have not learnt how to replace their resources. They also do not seek alternative resources to the ones we provided. They show no initiative in this area, only greed.”
“The humans are polluting the ground, the water and the sky with by-products of their industrial machinery. They are killing off the fish and the land animals at an alarming rate. Their population has doubled in the last 30 years, causing an enormous strain on the planet.”
“They squabble and fight between themselves incessantly. They nearly ended it themselves 50 or so years ago. Their pre-occupation with weapons of destruction, rather than tools of exploration, has led to huge stockpiles of potentially planet destroying weaponry. If not for a brief moment of sanity, they would have used their weapons and destroyed the planet.”
“Once again, as in earlier experiments on this and other planets, they have deviated from the original intention of the species – to develop in harmony and explore the universe. Instead they perform all sorts of strange acts. Some of these primitives still eat meat for nutrition for heavens sake! That went out with the dark ages!” he smiled at his own joke of using EARTH expressions.
“It is not the environment we have put them in, for they have been unsurpassable. It is the race itself that is flawed. Anyway, I say we move on. There is no hope for this race, we will have to try again.” He sat down, concluding his report.
There was a murmur of consent around the table, even the “Environmentalists” had been won over in the face of such evidence.
“Well we’re all agreed then”, the leader of the scientific group spoke, “The whole race has been a failure. Let us hope we do not make the same mistake next time. Send this message to the astronauts in Explorer 12 and let’s get them home as soon as possible.”
“Explorer 12 this is Mission control. You are to abort the experiment. Repeat abort the experiment, over. Proceed home when mission completed”
“We roger that Mission control, we roger that,” The captain pressed a button and turned to his crew member grinning as EARTH disintegrated into tiny fragments. “Lets go home, eh?”
the end