Saturday, October 15, 2011

Titan


Posit: Life evolves on Titan three trillion tomorrows hence, heated from the swollen Sun, having only a twentieth of this time to grow to leave the satellite before its burnt cinderstyle. (Note: that’s 500 million earth-years from single-cell to rocket jockey.)

A whole society of unique aliens evolves. Due to some instinct, perhaps some genetic characteristic, perhaps divine intervention, the race has always looked toward the stars. Their religion, their mythology, even down to the words and word-images they speak to describe their reality. The whole overview of their Book, the “super outline”, will be of their race to evolve mentally, physically, socially, scientifically, spiritually, and leave Titan en masse before their home is engulfed by the ever-expanding, ever-reddening, senile Sun. They must overcome physical obstacles as well as themselves (or the less-enlightened “villains”) to reach this goal.


Questions:



What would the Titans be like physically? Not just dimensionally, but in terms of lifespan, reproduction, etc.

What would their religion be like? Their mythologies? Their philosophies?

What other semi-intelligent species would share the warming world? Larger predators of the Titans, perhaps?

What would the Titans call the Sun? Their home world? Each other?


***


Damn. Now I’ll never get to sleep tonight …





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