Bacteria Evolution in Sci-Fi CAN Kill You?
This bacteria hasn’t evolved in more than two billion years
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-bacteria-hasn-t-evolved-in-more-than-two-billion-years
This is a very interesting article. Some anti-evolution people will quote this as proof that Darwin was wrong. The article gives a good explanation of why that isn’t true.
If I may state it differently, a living organism only evolves so that it will survive. If the environment doesn’t change and the organism is successful then there is no reason for it to change. The shark and other creatures demonstrate that, although not changing over 2 billion years is a long time.
Bacteria Evolution in Scifi
In my novel, Progeny’s Descendants, humanity is forced to abandon Earth because of the pollution. They make a multigenerational journey, along the way their greatest enemy is the bacterial build up in the air ducts within the ship. Some ships survive because of their thorough cleaning to keep the bacterial growth under control while others don’t and they are forced to abandon their ships.
I think this has a direct impact on Science Fiction. Most of us sci-fi authors imagine future societies that have evolved into something much further advanced than we are. When in fact a civilization may only evolve until it succeeds. What do I mean by succeed? We are ‘succeeding’ but we may be still evolving. Our brains have other factors, like exploration, questioning our position in the universe and other questioning characteristics. I suppose that a society can reach a point where it is ‘succeeding’ but it doesn’t need to explore and question the world around them. They might even be a technological society that had developed technology only to the extent that it helped its daily existence.
This is also a partial answer to Fermi’s Paradox. As society may evolve to the point, where it succeeds but it doesn’t have the need to continue exploration. It could find a comfortable limit where it sees no need to explore.
I point this out because in my series Gemini, I tried to do that. I created a society that wasn’t inquisitive; it didn’t question its position in the universe around them. They were happy, propagating and living a good life. They evolved as the alpha predator so they didn’t need to develop survival instincts like ours. They didn’t have war so they didn’t invent weapons. However, they did make a small mistake and their civilization almost paid the ultimate price.
Ray Jay Perreault
Ray is a prolific author who enjoys science fiction. He believes that genre is fertile ground for understanding ourselves and where we’re going. He has written a mix of Sci-Fi stories but tends to focus on narratives featuring strong female characters, computers, post-apocalyptic themes, and strong morals, loyalties, and drama.
Share his Sci-Fi enthusiasm as part of his reader’s club.
Ray was a Senior Pilot in the US Air Force and traveled to 27 countries worldwide. His C-130 assignments ranged from landing in a farm field in Paraguay to entering East Berlin and experiencing Russian controllers giving him false headings.
Ray’s other assignment was as a T-38 instructor pilot. “The T-38 is the best plane in the world; two pilots, two engines, and two afterburners.” Two of his remarkable experiences included training the first class of female pilots and receiving an Air Commendation Medal for saving a T-38 that blew an engine during a touch-and-go, thereby saving himself and the student pilot on board.
After his Air Force career, Ray went on to enjoy a long and exciting career with Northrop Grumman. During the 28 years at Northrop, some of the highlights included work as the Lead Wind Tunnel test engineer on the F-20, F-23, F-18, and B-2. His career progressed to be the Deputy Manager of Engineering for the Tri-Service Stand-Off Attack Missile (TSSM). Later, he was responsible for all the computers at Ryan Aeronautical and then for all the computers on the B-2 Bomber program.
Ray hopes you enjoy his work, and he looks forward to sharing many new and exciting stories with you.
Benefits of Joining My Reader’s Club
- Three free novels
- “Virus-72 Hours to Live” – First Book in the 7-Book Series “Virus/Earth II.” Winner of the 2016 Medallion from the Apple Literary Award for best Sci-Fi of the summer.
- “Progeny” – A female computer who is one of the computer society’s top scientists discovers the DNA of their creator.
- “Fermi’s Pair of Socks” – Six teenagers are kidnapped and taken on a journey of time and space.
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