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TOS vs. TNG Klingons
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ryan McReynolds: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [qb] A Preserver-like player operating in the recent past still wouldn't explain all the supposedly "ancient" yet staggeringly parallel cultures. We'd virtually have to assume that everybody was branched off the same litter within the century, and given false memories and biological, geological and written histories...[/qb][/QUOTE]Not neccessarily. All of the [i]human[/i] humanoids from TOS, for instance, could have been abducted from Earth over the last few thousand years, which would explain the ridiculously high amount of apparent parallel evolution. The Andorians, though, might have been a trial and error adaption proccess beginning with [i]Homo erectus[/i], so a designed prehistory isn't neccessary because no species (presumably) remembers their own evolution. The Preservers could then, occasionally, tinker with their creation to get whatever cultural outcome they want. [QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [qb]As long as we hesitate with that, we could go back to "The Chase" and simply accept that these smart proto-humanoids had the means necessary to create all the current humanoid life in their image. Not just spread some DNA goo around - but create a whole preplanned future where every species, regardless of the evolutionary path, would inevitably coverge to bipeds of the known Trek attributes. Given their expert manipulation of the DNA of the modern species, I think they could have pulled this off. Their tampering ensured that future DNA (4 *billion* years in the future!) would not only act as a roadmap if halfway properly assembled, but would also converge into an invasive program that would hijack any suitable piece of instrumentation and turn it into a holoprojector. Surely it could even more easily have been tampered to ensure the birth of trouser-wearing biped males who wear short hair, trousers and low heels.[/qb][/QUOTE]Maybe. My problem is neurology. Even on Earth, there are plenty of cultures in which men don't wear trousers, women don't shave their armpits/legs, men don't shave their faces, and so on. It can't be programmed into [i]our[/i] DNA, or we'd all do it, so it has to be cultural... and the only people we know of who screw with cultures are the Preservers. I submit that the proto-humanoids didn't realize that the humanoids who would read their message would be as convergent as they were. They were expecting races more like the Saurians, Anticans, Selay, Gorn, Antedians, and others who are "humanoid" in shape, but not in details. These sorts of races, and humans, are the only pure descendants of the proto-humanoids by my reckoning. All of the others, who look like humans with funny ears and foreheads and need little help to breed, are Preserver manipulations. Either way, you get somebody wanting trousers and smooth faces on their men, and skirts and long hair on their women. Maybe the proto-humanoids are more parsimonious, but these seem to be "new" developments they couldn't influence. There is, of course, the occasionally posited idea that the Preservers [i]are[/i] the proto-humanoids. [QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [qb]As for the other thing, the modern species being on the same technological rung... I think that's better explained by saying that a) it just isn't true - we have observer bias because the Starfleet heroes avoid the primitives, and the advanced beings avoid the Starfleet heroes, and b) when it's locally true, it's because of the usual things - big wars that wipe the slate clean and create a "year zero" every now and then, synchronized escalation of power between important species and subsequent destruction of unimportant and less developed ones, a general policy of even the benevolent empires forcing their subject races to start marching apace with the leading race...[/qb][/QUOTE]Now that is a good idea. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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