Giant Series 01 - Inherit the Stars

by Inherit the Stars [lit]

  billion choices open to him. This is the game of evolution. To

  suppose that two such independent sequences could result in end

  products that are identical would surely be demanding too much of

  our credulity. The laws of chance and statistics are quite firm

  when applied to sufficiently large numbers of samples. The laws of

  thermodynamics, for example, are nothing more than expressions of

  the probable behavior of gas molecules, yet the numbers involved

  are so large that we feel quite safe in accepting the postulates as

  rigid rules; no significant departure from them has ever been

  observed. The probabifity of the parallel line of evolulion that

  you suggest is less than the probability of heat flowing from the

  kettle to the fire, or of all the air molecules in this room

  crowding into one corner at the same time, causing us all to

  explode spontaneously. Mathematically speaking, yes-the possibility

  of parallelism is finite, but so indescribably remote that we need

  consider it no further."

  A young electronics engineer took the argument up at this point

  "Couldn't God get a look in?" he asked. "Or at least, some kind of

  guiding force or principle that we don't yet comprehend? Couldn't

  the same design be produced via different lines in different

  places?"

  Danchekker shook his head and smiled almost benevolently.

  "We are scientists, not mystics," he replied. "One of the funda

  mental principles of scientific method is that new and speculative

  hypotheses do not warrant consideration as long as the facts that

  are observed are adequately accounted for by the theories that

  already exist. Nothing resembling a universal guiding force has

  ever been revealed by generations of investigation, and since the

  facts observed are adequately explained by the accepted principles

  I have outlined, there is no necessity to invoke or invent

  additional causes. Notions of guiding forces and grand designs

  exist only in the mind of the misguided observer, not in the facts

  he observes."

  "But suppose it turns out that Charlie came from somewhere else,"

  the metallurgist insisted. "What then?"

  "Ah! Now, that would be an entirely different matter. If it should

  be proved by some other means that Charlie did indeed evolve

  somewhere else, then we would be forced to accept that parallel

  evolution had occurred as an observed and unquestionable fact.

  Since this could not be explained within the framework of

  contemporary theory, our theories would be shown to be woefully

  inadequate. That would be the time to speculate on additional

  influences. Then, perhaps, your universal guiding force might find

  a rightful place. To entertain such concepts at this stage,

  however, would be to put the cart fairly and squarely before the

  horse. In so doing, we would be guilty of a breach of one of the

  most fundamental of scientific principles."

  Somebody else tried to push the professor from a different angle.

  "How about convergent lines rather than parallel lines? Maybe the

  selection principles work in such a way that different lines of

  development converge toward the same optimum end product. In other

  words, although they start out in different directions, they will

  both eventually hit on the same, best final design. Like . . ." He

  sought for an analogy. "Like sharks are fish and dolphins are

  mammals. They both came from different origins but ended up hitting

  on the same general shape."

  Danchekker again shook his head firmly. "Forget the idea of

  perfection and best end products," he said. "You are unwittingly

  falling into this trap of assuming a grand design again. The human

  form is not nearly as perfect as you perhaps imagine. Nature does

  not produce best solutions-it will try any solution. The only test

  applied is that it be good enough to survive and reproduce itself.

  Far more species have proved unsuccessful and become extinct

  than have survived-far, far more. It is easy to contemplate a kind

  of preordained striving toward something perfect when this

  fundamental fact is overlooked-when looking back dawn the tree, as

  it were, with the benefit of hindsight from our particular

  successful branch and forgetting the countless other branches that

  got nowhere.

  "No, forget this idea of perfection. The developments we see in the

  natural world are simply cases of something good enough to do the

  job. Usually, many conceivable alternatives would be as good, and

  some better.

  "Take as an example the cusp pattern on the first lower molar tooth

  of man. It is made up of a group of five main cusps with a complex

  of intervening grooves and ridges that help to grind up food. There

  is no reason to suppose that this particular pattern is any more

  efficient than any one of many more that might be considered. This

  particular pattern, however, first occurred as a mutation somewhere

  along the ancestral line leading toward man and has been passed on

  ever since. The same pattern is also found on the teeth of the

  great apes, indicating that we both inherited it from some early

  common ancestor where it happened through pure chance.

  "Charlie has human cusp patterns on all his teeth.

  "Many of our adaptations are far from perfect. The arrangement of

  internal organs leaves much to be desired, owing to our inheriting

  a system originally developed to suit a horizontal and not an

  upright posture. In our respiratory system, for example, we find

  that the wastes and dirt that accumulate in the throat and nasal

  regions drain inside and not outside, as happened originally, a

  prime cause of many bronchial and chest complaints not suffered by

  four-footed animals. That's hardly perfection, is it?'~' Danchekker

  took a sip of water and made an appealing gesture to the room in

  general.

  "So, we see that any idea of convergence toward the ideal is not

  supported by the facts. Charlie exhibits all our faults and

  imperfections as well as our improvements. No, I'm sorry-I

  appreciate that these questions are voiced in the best tradition of

  leaving no possibility unprobed and I commend you for them, but

  really, we must dismiss them."

  Silence enveloped the room at his concluding words. On all

  sides, everybody seemed to be staring thoughtfully through the

  table, through the walls, or through the ceiling.

  Caldwell placed his hands on the table and looked around until

  satisfied that nobody had anything to add.

  "Looks like evolution stays put for a while longer," he grunted.

  "Thank you, Professor."

  Danchekker nodded without looking up.

  "However," Caldwell continued, "the object of these meetings is to

  give everyone a chance to talk freely as well as listen. So far,

  some people haven't had much to say-especially one or two of the

  newcomers." Hunt realized with a start that Caidwell was looking

  straight at him. "Our English visitor, for example, whom most of

  you already know. Dr. Hunt, do you have any views that we ought to
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  hear about. . . ?"

  Next to Caldwell, Lyn Garland was making no attempt to conceal a

  wide smile. Hunt took a long draw at his cigarette and used the

  delay to collect his thoughts. In the time it took for him to

  coolly emit one long, diffuse cloud of smoke and ifick his hand at

  the ashtray, all the pieces clicked together in his brain with the

  smooth precision of the binary regiments parading through the

  registers of the computers downstairs. Lyn's persistent

  cross-examinations, her visits to the Ocean, his presence

  here-Caldwell had found a catalyst.

  Hunt surveyed the array of attentive faces. "Most of what's been

  said reasserts the accepted principles of comparative anatomy and

  evolutionary theory. Just to clear the record for anyone with

  misleading ideas, I've no intention of questioning them. However,

  the conclusion could be summed up by saying that since Charlie

  comes from the same ancestors as we do, he must have evolved on

  Earth the same as we did."

  "That is so," threw in Danchekker.

  "Fine," Hunt replied. "Now, all this is really your problem, not

  mine, but since you've asked me what I think, I'll state the

  conclusion another way. Since Charlie evolved on Earth, the

  civilization he was from evolved on Earth. The indications are that

  his culture was about as advanced as ours, maybe in one or two

  areas slightly more advanced. So, we ought to find no end of traces

  of his people. We don't. Why not?"

  All heads turned toward Danchekker.

  The professor sighed. "The only conclusion left open to us is

  that whatever traces were left have been erased by the natural

  processes of weathering and erosion," he said wearily. "There are

  several possibilities: A catastrophe of some sort could have wiped

  them out to the extent that there were no traces; or possibly their

  civilization existed in regions which today are submerged beneath

  the oceans. Further searching will no doubt produce solutions to

  this question."

  "If any catastrophe as violent as that occurred so recently, we

  would already know about it," Hunt pointed out. "Most of what was

  land then is still land today, so I can't see them sinking into the

  ocean somewhere, either; besides, you've only to look at our

  civilization to see it's not confined to localized areas-it's

  spread all over the globe. And how is it that in spite of all the

  junk that keeps turning up with no trouble at all from primitive

  races from around the same time-bones, spears, clubs, and so

  on-nobody has ever found a single example of anything related to

  this supposed technologically advanced culture? Not a screw, or a

  piece of wire, or a plastic washer. To me, that doesn't make

  sense."

  More murmuring broke out to mark the end of Hunt's critique.

  "Professor?" Caldwell invited comment with a neutral voice.

  Danchekker compressed his mouth into a grimace. "Oh, I agree, I

  agree. It is surprising-very surprising. But what alternative are

  you proposing?" His voice took on a note of sarcasm. "Do you

  suggest that man and all the animals came to Earth in some enormous

  celestial Noah's Ark?" He laughed. "If so, the fossil record of a

  hundred million years disproves you."

  "Impasse." The comment came from Professor Schorn, an authority on

  comparative anatomy, who had arrived from Stuttgart a few days

  before.

  "Looks like it," Caldwell agreed.

  Danchekker, however, was not through. "Would Dr. Hunt care to

  answer my question?" he challenged. "Precisely what other place of

  origin is he suggesting?"

  "I'm not suggesting anywhere in particular," Hunt replied evenly.

  "What I am suggesting is that perhaps a more openminded approach

  might be appropriate at this stage. After all, we've only just

  found Charlie. This business will go on for years yet; there's

  bound to be a lot more information surfacing that we don't have

  right now. I think it's too early to be jumping ahead and

  predicting what the answers might be. Better just to keep on

  plodding along and using every scrap of data we've got to put

  together a picture of the place Charlie came from. It might turn

  out to be Earth. Then again, it might not."

  Caldwell led him on further. "How would you suggest we go about

  that?"

  Hunt wondered if this was a direct cue. He decided to risk it. "You

  could try taking a closer look at this." He drew a sheet of paper

  out from the folder in front of him and slid it across to the

  center of the table. The paper showed a complicated tabular

  arrangement of Lunarian numerals.

  "What's that?" asked a voice.

  "It's from one of the pocket books," Hunt replied. "I think the

  book is something not unlike a diary. I also believe that that"-he

  pointed at the sheet-"could well be a calendar." He caught a sly

  wink from Lyn Garland and returned it.

  "Calendar?"

  "How d'you figure that one?"

  "It's all gobbledygook."

  Danchekker stared hard at the paper for a few seconds. "Can you

  prove it's a calendar?" he demanded.

  "No, I can't. But I have analyzed the number pattern and can state

  that it's made up of ascending groups that repeat in sets and

  subsets. Also, the alphabetic groups that seem to label the major

  sets correspond to the headings of groups of pages further on-

  remarkably like the layout of a diary."

  "Hmmph! More likely some form of tabular page index."

  "Could be," Hunt granted. "But why not wait and see? Once the

  language has unraveled a bit more, it should be possible to

  cross-check a lot of what's here with items from other sources.

  This is the kind of thing that maybe we ought to be a little more

  open-minded about. You say Charlie comes from Earth; I say he

  might. You say this is not a calendar; I say it might be. In my

  estimation, an attitude like yours is too inflexible to permit an

  unbiased appraisal of the problem. You've already made up your mind

  what you want the answers to be."

  "Hear, hear!" a voice at the end of the table called.

  Danchekker colored visibly, but Caldwell spoke before he could

  reply.

  "You've analyzed the numbers-right?"

  "Right."

  ~uicay, supposing for now its a calendar-wnat more can you tell

  us?"

  Hunt leaned forward across the table and pointed at the sheet with

  his pen.

  "First, two assumptions. One: the natural unit of time on any world

  is the day-that is, the time it takes the planet to rotate on its

  axis. . ."

  "Assuming it rotates," somebody tossed in.

  "That was my second assumption. But the only cases we know of where

  there's no rotation-or where the orbital period equals the axial

  period, which amounts to the same thing-occur when a small body

  orbits close to a far more massive one and is swamped by

  gravitational tidal effects, like our Moon. For that to happen to a

  body the size of a planet, the planet would have to orbit very

  close to its parent
star-too close for it to support any life

  comparable to our own."

  "Seems reasonable," Caldwell said, looking around the table.

  Various heads were nodding assent. "Where do we go from there?"

  "Okay," Hunt resumed. "Assuming it rotates and the day is its

  natural unit of time-if this complete table represents one full

  orbit around its sun, there are seventeen hundred days in its year,

  one entry for each."

  "Pretty long," someone hazarded.

  "To us, yes: at least, the year-to-day ratio is big. It could mean

  the orbit is large, the rotational period short, or perhaps a bit

  of both. Now look at the major number groups-the ones tagged with

  the heavy alphabetic labels. There are forty-seven of them. Most

  contain thirty-six numbers, but nine of them have thirty-seven-the

  first, sixth, twelfth, eighteenth, twenty-fourth, thirtieth,

  thirtysixth, forty-second, and forty-seventh. That seems a bit odd

  at first sight, but so would our system to someone unfamiliar with

  it. It suggests that maybe somebody had to do a bit of fiddling

  with it to make it work."

  "Mmm. . . like with our months."

  "Exactly. This is just the sort of juggling you have to do to get a

  sensible fit of our months into our year. It happens because

  there's no simple relationship between the orbital periods of

  planet and satellite; there's no reason why there should be. I'm

  guessing that if this is a calendar that relates to some other

  planet,

  then the reason for this odd mix of thirty-sixes and thirty-sevens

  is the same as the one that causes problems with our calendar: That

  planet had a moon."

  "So these groups are months," Caldwell stated.

  "If it's a calendar-yes. Each group is divided into three

  subgroups-weeks, if you like. Normally there are twelve days in

  each, but there are nine long months, in which the middle week has

  thirteen days."

  Danchekker looked for a long time at the sheet of paper, an

  expression of pained disbelief spreading slowly across his face.

  "Are you proposing this as a serious scientific theory?" he queried

  in a strained voice.

  "Of course not," Hunt replied. "This is all pure speculation. But

  it does indicate some of the avenues that could be explored. These

  alphabetic groups, for example, might correspond to references that

  the language people might dig from other sources-such as dates on