LJ Idol Week 3: Coprolite
Nov. 3rd, 2011 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Whatever else they might have called us, we were the ghost generation. When the aliens came to our planet, there was little left for them to find of us.
Oh, there were endless variations on a tall rectangular building with flat roofs, and some crumbling, rotting evidence of rows of white fences and cheerful bungalows. But who had inhabited these buildings? They guessed we were tall by the soaring ceilings, but were confused by the relatively low doors (where they still existed). They were able to re-create our maps, after a fashion, but I saw the puzzlement of the scholars; were the endless circles religious, they wondered, or merely practical? And what about the grid patterning in the more densely built areas? They eventually decided that it was symbolic; everything was interconnected, everyone touching upon everyone else.
I began following the more imaginative of the scientists as she worked her way through the wreckage sites, trying to reconstruct technology she had never encountered to create a viable model of how we had lived. She complained frequently to her partner.
"It's like they were robots," she said once. "They burned everything they were done with. We haven't found so much as a single physical specimen left."
"That's usual, on these places," he said gently. "John thinks they were wiped out by plague. They probably burned all the bodies to be safe."
We were burning our bodies long before then, I told him. He didn't hear me.
"But not even a speck of any biological material?" she continued. "We have no idea what they ate and drank, except for that menu that Ariel was able to rig back up."
Her partner shrugged again. "We just have to keep looking." He turned the white object in his hands over and over again. "I'm more worried about their culture. Everything we've been able to date has been well over five millenia old, but they were only wiped out four millenia ago. What happened between those times? No photographs, no art, nothing." He shook his head.
We had those things, I told him. But they belonged to everyone and no one. You could see them on that device you're holding, if you could only turn it on. They existed somewhere between the real world and the unreal.
Like me.
I'm here, too.
"Do you feel sad for them?" She asked after a long pause.
"Every day," he said.
She reached over and squeezed his arm, and he patted her leg. "Why do you think they put apples on everything?" he asked her.
"To ward off evil?" she suggested, and looked up. "Did you hear that?"
"No."
"Like someone laughing..."
He cocked his head. "I think that's the dinner bell," he said. "Come on. Let's go eat."
Oh, there were endless variations on a tall rectangular building with flat roofs, and some crumbling, rotting evidence of rows of white fences and cheerful bungalows. But who had inhabited these buildings? They guessed we were tall by the soaring ceilings, but were confused by the relatively low doors (where they still existed). They were able to re-create our maps, after a fashion, but I saw the puzzlement of the scholars; were the endless circles religious, they wondered, or merely practical? And what about the grid patterning in the more densely built areas? They eventually decided that it was symbolic; everything was interconnected, everyone touching upon everyone else.
I began following the more imaginative of the scientists as she worked her way through the wreckage sites, trying to reconstruct technology she had never encountered to create a viable model of how we had lived. She complained frequently to her partner.
"It's like they were robots," she said once. "They burned everything they were done with. We haven't found so much as a single physical specimen left."
"That's usual, on these places," he said gently. "John thinks they were wiped out by plague. They probably burned all the bodies to be safe."
We were burning our bodies long before then, I told him. He didn't hear me.
"But not even a speck of any biological material?" she continued. "We have no idea what they ate and drank, except for that menu that Ariel was able to rig back up."
Her partner shrugged again. "We just have to keep looking." He turned the white object in his hands over and over again. "I'm more worried about their culture. Everything we've been able to date has been well over five millenia old, but they were only wiped out four millenia ago. What happened between those times? No photographs, no art, nothing." He shook his head.
We had those things, I told him. But they belonged to everyone and no one. You could see them on that device you're holding, if you could only turn it on. They existed somewhere between the real world and the unreal.
Like me.
I'm here, too.
"Do you feel sad for them?" She asked after a long pause.
"Every day," he said.
She reached over and squeezed his arm, and he patted her leg. "Why do you think they put apples on everything?" he asked her.
"To ward off evil?" she suggested, and looked up. "Did you hear that?"
"No."
"Like someone laughing..."
He cocked his head. "I think that's the dinner bell," he said. "Come on. Let's go eat."
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Date: 2011-11-04 04:01 am (UTC)I like how you imply what culture you're talking about, without spelling it out. And--"Why do you think they put apples on everything?" Awesome. Nice work.
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Date: 2011-11-04 05:45 am (UTC)It's something kind of inspired by something related to the week 1 prompt (a friend talking about reconstructionist religions), and how we don't really have a lot of historical record/context for a number of things. This was kind of an outgrowth of that.
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Date: 2011-11-04 03:42 pm (UTC)I, also, enjoy thinking about how an alien archaeologist would view our society. Your idea that all art vanishes into cyberspace is sobering. I hope it doesn't come to that. Have you watched that History Channel CGI documentary about life after mankind is gone?
http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-People-History-Channel/dp/B0012IV3PU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320421313&sr=8-1
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Date: 2011-11-04 05:15 pm (UTC)I think that it's probably too extreme a consequence; even if we did get perfect virtual reality, there would be some people that would insist that reality was still better and that making things in the physical world was more meaningful than any VR item... but it would definitely make those things (apparently) rare to someone who didn't have access to the virtual reality coming across us later.
I have not, but I keep meaning to. I actually don't watch a lot of TV any more, so remembering to do so is tough (I usually have to watch the shows I DO keep up with on On Demand, because I forget to watch them when they actually run...)
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