INTRODUCTION

CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES

Life can evolve in similar ways regardless of the majority or predominant atomic elements existent on any random chosen, given world. Whether this life is a carbon-based one or it is a silicon-based one, the processes inherent in DNA evolution are strikingly similar. Imagine if we had the ability or technology to “seed” or “genetically terraform” possibly potential life bearing planets. The similarities that may occur between the life forms that could develop on one world and the subsequent life forms that could develop on another world may be almost identical, even though the environment on one world may be harsh or even possibly deadly to the type of life form on the other world.
On water bearing planets, where there is possibly a moon or some other celestial body causing higher tides resulting in fewer occurrences of landmasses, the impact of the environment will likely be most commonly seen as failing to evolve land dwelling creatures at all. The life form that would emerge as the intelligent species if not the most fit species would almost certainly be a type of life form whose evolution would allow the gross manipulation of the environment with the least effort, and ideally, some rudimentary type or hopefully major type of intelligence would eventually develop due to that ability.
In another respect, imagine the impact of an environment where mammals fail to develop or fail to prosper because reptiles are more suited to that particular environment. On warm planets this can occur, wherein a faster or more rapid rotation of a planet on its axis can allow the environment to be warmed evenly. This set of circumstances would allow the resident cold-blooded reptilian life forms to be constantly active. Given this advantage, the reptiles could just simply eat the mammals that would emerge on the scene, being, (hopefully) more highly evolved but even more importantly, there first. In this respect, a mammalian life form would be less likely to evolve into anything more than cattle for the existent reptiles.
On a planet where the mammalian life form can emerge and evolve to the point that would give the subsequent mammal a fighting chance to be a natural selection candidate as the intelligent species would involve that the planet routinely have an environment that is harsh in some way to reptiles. The planet Earth is a planet such as this. A planet that has a slow axial rotation that supports the increased likelihood of cold nights, winters, and poles such that any cold-blooded reptiles would be sluggish and/or slow in the moderate regions, and non existent in the extreme colder regions. Mammals being warm-blooded would thrive were reptilian life would fail.
Insects could also develop as the dominant intelligent species. A planet in which this would be the case would have landmasses but would not have a generous food supply in its waters or as vegetation on the land. Perhaps this planet would have a rapid rotation causing excess heat and a distant celestial body, causing lower tides. Closer proximity to the sun, a larger sun, or one rapidly (over millennia) increasing in size would significantly decrease the water volume over the surface of the planet without making it a desert but making it not viable for many other forms of life. Insects can consume and thrive off almost any biological matter. Whether it is the cast off from other life forms, such as dung, rotted tissue, crumbs, or even the slime that sometimes covers rocks at the edges of stagnant water pools. As with the dominance of any speciated life form, the life form that gets a head start and does not experience frequent setbacks can take advantage of what follows.
In the case of our hypothetical planet where the insect species emerges as the predominant life form, some insect forms of life will begin to eat other insect forms of life. Conceivably, they will start on an upward spiral of growth and thus can grow larger becoming more intelligent and better able to manipulate their environment along the way. Such insects could, in probability be termed Insectoids. The average human is used to insect forms that are small in comparison to what an Insectoids would be. My conception of an Insectoid would be an insect life form, which would probably average if not succeed human size, stature and intelligence. We as a race are seeing what normally occurs when other insects as well competing life forms consume the vast majority of all insect forms. On the planet Earth, our insects are consumed by not only other insects but also are the favorite diet for many terrestrial birds, reptilians, rodents, and some (not too small) majority of humans who consider an insect dish to be one for a connoisseur of the exotic. For my Insectoids to evolve from a large “normal” insect to a larger and more specialized specimen on Earth would require an ideally protected environment in which none of Earth’s other life forms could discover and make a meal of it. On Earth, this is simply just not the extant situation, but consider the possibilities in the case on those rare worlds where insects evolve as the predominant, and eventually the intelligent, species.
In Evolutions End, our Insectoids come into being due to many circumstances, one of which, and not the least of many, is the recent human trend toward genetic engineering. Contributing factors for the continuance of such a rushed evolution are humankind’s self-destructive behavior as well as a rapidly changing environment due to our current problems with the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect, as well as radioactive waste and natural environmental changes over untold thousands of years. Life seems always to find a way to proceed and given this set of circumstances, anything is possible. The proceeding story is my imaginings on the subject and is only one interpretation in an infinite and extremely variable universe. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the journey. Once again, consider the possibilities!

Andrew L. Witherspoon

OUR GALAXY

Almost five billion years ago, in the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy a planet was forming. This planet unlike the majority of planets that would form it this particular system in this particular arm would one day be teeming with life. This life would take many unsuspected turns and pitfalls but life would always remain in some form. As time passed, the planet cooled from the violent cosmic events that had shaped it to its present condition. This gave rise to events that would eventually seed the planet with the ingredients it needed and make it ready for its first form of life.
That life was something that had never before been and would mostly likely never be again, at least not here. From the primordial sea, a new creation fought and struggled to pull itself onto the seemingly just created landmass, gasping for life as it breathed its first breath of oxygen. It promptly died. Life is a tenacious thing, and if there is a way, life will always find it and it did. After many such failures as the first, finally there came onto the scene a life form expressly suited for its environment, the sea. Unlike its predecessors, it did not immediately attempt to explore further than the domain for which it was suited. Not this time, instead, time passed and it also died, but not before it had procreated and genetically passed on the attributes of survival, it had garnered it its short existence. Generation after generation of its kind came and went, each leaving a little more than it had than when it came, each one building toward the future of its species. In this manner, they survived as a species and spread. Moreover, in their spreading, they also began slowly to change, each a little different from generation to generation until they were no longer one species, but many and varied. Now the real competition could begin.
Suddenly, relatively as time passes, there was no longer a peaceful coexistence but rather an ever-growing rivalry for just plain existence. As each group became a distinct species, it developed ways to insure its existence or it died out. Some ways worked for a time until another group evolved into an even better way, and so it went, each species alternately getting stronger in turns while the weaker died out. This survival of the fit versus the unfit could seemingly go on but things were about to change. A few species that were numerous in number began to evolve in an opposing manner to the rest. Until now, the evolutionary trend was solely been geared towards this one environment. This small number of different species began to change in ways that were not so different from each other. They grew rudimentary lungs. Lungs that allowed them to, in essence, defeat their competitors by avoiding them all together. Almost half of the changed species stayed this way, between the sea and the land, but just as life will find a way, it will find more than one. The other half of the changed species began to evolve more and more specifically towards the new environment of land and less towards the old environment, the sea. Eventually they left the sea all together, each species distinct, yet similar and each to be a player in a new competition.
The land environment was even harsher than the sea had been and so the evolutionary cycle repeated itself as it had in the sea but now on land. The species not wholly suited for the new environment became the meal of another species or simply died out. Just as in the sea, each species began to develop and evolve new ways to insure its existence and dominance over the environment. Many more species failed, while others reached a type of homeostasis. They were preyed upon but in turn preyed upon others. The circle was closed yet stable. For a time things slowed down. Life continued to change and grow but at a more stable pace. New creatures came and went. The fit live and the fit also died. Nothing changed. Nothing changed for a relatively long time; at least it did not seem to be changing.
Life was still working its plan of survival and it would be the biggest yet to come. Now at this point, if we could look through a time window back to the moment that this biggest change came, we would probably have gotten bad reception. Let us just say that the power went off for a second and when it came back on, everything had changed. Hot had become cold, water had become ice, and seemingly the previous dominant species that had been so fit for the environment before our power outage was a no show in this new one. Instead, a species that was small in number and quite the pest then was well on its way to dominance now. All it had to do was make it through the cold, which would be a long wait indeed. By now, life had its pattern down pat and it was pretty much an inescapable pattern. This new dominant species would live, grow and change. It would vary, compete, and become strong, stronger in ways more important than the dominant species before it. In addition, if it was lucky, stronger in ways than any species that might attempt to supersede it. In general, this species was on average, smaller than any previous surviving species on land or sea. In the old environment, it would have survived only if not exterminated first. In the new environment, it would survive only if it did not starve to death.
Survive is what it did, until the cold began to recede and the waters began to thaw. Not only did it survive but also it began to thrive, each separate sub species in its own way. When the warmth had returned to the majority of the planet the migration began. Just as the first successful sea species did, this species, all of the different, alike, and oddly strange ones began to spread out. In their spreading, they began slowly to change, each a grossly different from generation to generation until they were no longer one species, but a multitude of similar and completely different species. Now the real race was in progress.
Suddenly, relatively as time passes, there was no longer rivalry coexistence, but instead all out war replaced coexistence. Domination outweighed survival. As each group became a distinct species, it developed ways to dominate or destroy to insure its existence or it in turn became the dominated or destroyed. Some ways worked for a time until another group evolved into an even better way, and so it went, each species alternately getting stronger in turns while the weaker became the dominated over or the preyed on, into extinction. This survival of kill versus be killed continued for an indefinite time but all too soon, things would change, as always, the only constant. A few species that were numerous in number began to evolve in an opposing manner to the rest. Until now, the evolutionary trend had been spreading to all of the environments, the air, the land, and the sea. A small number of a different species began to change in ways that were different and this change was major. They grew intelligent.
This intelligence was rudimentary at first, like the first lungs of this species ancient ancestor. As this unique species grew, changed, and learned not to just manipulate their environment but the other species as well, their intelligence grew. Their minds expanded and changed along with their bodies. New concepts and abilities emerged, food, shelter, fight, flee, power, weak, community, man, woman, family, fire and language. All of these new concepts made the new species feel powerful, act powerful and think in powerful ways. So powerful and important did they think they were that they endeavored, with the aid of their new language skills to give themselves a name. That name was simply, human. Humans were not very prolific, not at first but they were ingenious compared to other species. They could invent things to help them conquer their lack of numbers, things that promoted survival and dominance over all of the environments and all other species as well.
Eventually humans were without a doubt, the dominant species on the planet but slowly and surely, they proved not to be at all superior. As the ages passed, the humans conquered, destroyed, dominated, and seemed to prosper but unbeknownst to themselves; they were slowly creeping towards extinction.
The problem was not that they were not well suited for their environment; in contrast, their environment was not suited for them. They had outgrown it and in doing so had nowhere to expand. Expanding their environment beyond their planet seemed a logical choice except their reach had far exceeded their grasp. Event though they were on the verge of their next frontier, they were also on the verge of annihilating themselves; the only question was which would come first. As soon as the question, hypothetically, became an issue then it was promptly resolved, they destroyed them selves. This did not happen over night, not all at once, but in increments. They destroyed themselves with their inventions that slowly began to deteriorate their environment.
In an effort to force evolution to counter their mistakes they began to destroy themselves at a faster pace by first modifying themselves in order to change with the environment, but the biggest mistake of all was their attempt to use other life forms to modify. Life forms that were not rational or controllable and that could escape their control, and that is exactly what happened. Their newly modified life forms escaped their control and changed beyond their wildest expectations. The humans found that they were now not only fighting for time, and survival, but also against destruction by the very things they had caused to come into being. They lost of course and their successors, the insect they had changed rapidly became the new dominant species.
They evolved rapidly to the ever-changing environment and it suited them. This may have been the end of things except for a few side affects inherent in the DNA of the mutated arthropods. They possessed the ability to pass any all of their information from generation to generation genetically. As if this was not a feat in and of it self, they took this ability one-step further. By sampling the genetic material of any species, they could also obtain the majority of their genetically stored information as well. This is how the monsters became men. How the insect became the Insectoid, and how the knowledge of the human species was passed on as its pitfalls were seemingly easily dodged.