JamesNotes01Truth

From HOTGT

"Truth and Death," An excerpt from James Heru's notes for his next book:

The human body is an advanced primate, designed to go many places but specialized for none. A man can climb, but not as well as a monkey. A man can run, but not as well as a horse. A man can swim, but not as well as a seal. We are impressive generalists, evolved or, if you prefer, created to traverse the plains and forests of the hot, primitive wilderness of Earth that Was, escaping from monsters and searching for food in a variety of environments.

A human is not the best tool for any given job, but we have an impressive ability to fail to be the worst. Outmatched on the ground, we can climb a tree. Outmatched in the water, we can go to ground. Outmatched in force, we can make a tool. We pride ourselves on our intelligence, but some would tell you that we only ever needed to get smarter to compensate for all of our natural frailties. Even our earliest myths about the discovery of fire highlight that our cunning is all that we have to protect us from the fur and claws of the other beasts.

Despite our intelligence, we forget that, were other creatures to think as well as we, in many ways we would be a distinct disadvantage. A wolf with the mind of a man has been a horror story to humans throughout history. We are not designed to fill a single role, and even our big brains sit precariously balanced at the top of a formidable fall towards the punishing earth.

So why, when we invent a new creature, do we naturally look for something like us? For example, the ancient Egyptians had their gods precisely wrong; the inferior brain of an animal on the inferior body of a man. Some cultures tried the opposite; the shedu, the harpy, and the manticore all bear thinking human heads upon adapted animal bodies. Yet, when compared, which of the mythical beings looks the most comical? For most, the animal head on a human has grandeur, while the man's head on an animal seems like a joke.

The ancients of a certain culture believed that they could create men out of mud, just as they believed they had been created. Yet these creatures were not transmuted to flesh, but were mobile protectors of unflinching ceramics. To animate these beings, the creator must carve the word for "truth" upon its brow. In their language, "truth" was merely a letter more than "death." If the protector failed in its mission, went berserk as we have always expected of our mechanical servants, it was an act of a moment to smudge out the dividing letter and leave the monster a frozen husk.

We are not so different today. A machine meant solely for labor under the ground does not require a head, full of sensors and important circuits. It does not need an access panel directly into its brain, where it can be altered or stopped at need. Vital systems stored in the center of the machine would be much more resistant to falling rocks. Mining tools do not need to be built on arms rising from a torso. Efficiencies of leverage could be much better with a central, counterweighted appendage.

But we commence to build our creations on the same, unspecialized plan as ourselves. Any being with a semblance of independent thought must have the closest thing to a human body that we can give it while still allowing it to complete its task, no matter the inefficiencies this creates.

Do we have an altruistic need to think of our creations as our children, being made in our own image as we are in the image of our own creator?

Or do we simply reserve the ability to look our creations in the eye, judge them unworthy, reach out a hand, and wipe the truth from their minds?

Heroes of the Great Tree Topics
Impossibilities	I-verse background • Player Characters • NPCs • House Rules
Phantapunk	Aeryn Background • Player Characters • NPCs • House Rules
Concrete & Crimson	World Background • Scoobies • NPCs • House Rules
Keep Flying	The 'Verse • The Crew • NPCs • House Rules
Polybius	The World • Investigators • NPCs • House Rules
Labyrinth	The World • PCs • NPCs • House Rules