Underground rodents becoming too adapted and overpowering humans, everything other than level of intellect stays the same, but a single squick will terrify scarce surviviours.
Nice thought problem. Sound/vibration, chemosensation, and some sort of non-light sensitivity to electromagnetism seem appealing as channels of underground communication. Since mobility is limited underground, intelligent (or, letâs say, social computation) activity would seem to be limited to tunnel-builders or to networks of sessile organisms (plants, fungi). Termites, ants, or as-yet-poorly-characterized ecological networks seem to be good contenders.
An interesting thought. Termites, and other social insects offer a model. Without light, communication, many behaviors would need to be governed by either smell (pheromones) or sound. If we imagine human - like organisms living underground, they would need those abilities, along with the dexteral means to consider what they âneedâ and to construct complex actions. The sense of sight might be reduced, unless the organisms needed to venture above ground to meet their needs/wants. Mating rituals would be based on smell or sound, and the technologies would likely be also based on those criteria. Whatâs the point of Architecture or Art if they canât see them? Perhaps the sense of touch would create Architecture/Art that humans cannot appreciate? Depending on their metabolism, the cities would be governed by means we could not understand. David Niven, creator of the Piersonâs Puppeteers (Ringworld series) speculated that their cities might be constrained by heat - as social beings, their accumulated heat would necessitate some means of loosing that heat. Really, itâs endless, but fascinating!
@mamestraconfigurata Again, I consider what amazing, strange beings are naked mole rats: curiously long-lived and highly socialized culture and society ( seemingly matrilineal?). Strangely resistant to diseases of old age and Draw dropping Adaptations not seen in many other animals. Plus, they have (kind of) âhandsâ.
(And, donât point and call them ugly ! Every time my one finger points at something else, 3 fingers are pointed back at me)
PS⌠frankly, Iâm enchanted. I may want to be reincarnated as a naked mole-rat. (Well, maybe the food doesnât sound that good, but likely the food was not that enticing for early hominids either).
Intelligent naked mole rats might realize theyâre naked and start wearing tiny mining coveralls. Not sure they would need them, but tiny mining helmets could be advisable.
If humans ever colonize Mars, weâll probably be living in underground tunnels somewhat like mole rats.
You almost had me as a convert. Naked mole rats are pretty cool. The cancer resistance and ability to get along with very low oxygen are amazing adaptations. However, the wiki article did mention they are coprophagous. That is a big turn off for me. I canât imagine any coprophagous animal founding a great civilization.
Iâve often tried to imagine what my dog would consider high art. Certain smells and sounds seem to fascinate him. Not just the other dog and prey ones. On the other hand, he seems oblivious to most visual stimuli. Would a highly evolved canine consider something that stinks and sounds like a harmonica to be high art?
There is a CGI animated show called âThe Future is Wildâ where they semi-scientifically speculated on lie would evolve in the far distant future. One of my favorites was the â'slithersuckerâ is a predatory mycetozoan slime mold native to the Northern Forest of Novopangea, 200 million AD, in The Future is Wild"
Naked mole rats will hunt down all other undergroud rodents or will prevent their social acivities, so theyâll be the only underground rodents with society.
That moment will then become their Garden of Eden story.
Or, suppose everything we think we know about the interior of the earth is wrong (since we havenât actually been there to see for ourselves), and instead, Jules Verne was right in his Journey to the Center of the Earth.
I read a science fiction story once where the interior of the earth was inhabited by very dense metallic beings who moved freely through their hot dense environment, including an intelligent race that had just begun their early efforts at space exploration. They were very rueful and chagrined when they realized their emergence from the planet interior to the surface had vaporized all life on the planetâs surface.