Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Earthly Inhabitants

If aliens from another planet did come to orbit ours to check it out, what would they have concluded about the Earth?

I suspect they might observe that Earth is inhabited by a dominant species of hard-bodied creatures with fixed wings. These creatures move awkwardly and slowly on land, but are capable of flying long distances. These “flyers” fly from one nest to another, where they are fed and serviced by a much smaller but much more numerous species of soft-bodied “walkers”.

At irregular and infrequent intervals, a very smaller number of flyers would mate, often near their nests, sparking spectacular fireballs. They will then be escorted back to their nests. At some of these nests, off-springs are regularly produced, fully grown. It seems the reproductive process is very efficient, as the offsprings-to-matings ratio is very high.

Walkers multiply even more rapidly but matings having not been observed in the open at all. Walker reproductive behaviour remains a mystery, perhaps because they mate inside their own nests, hence very difficult to observe.

There is another species of hard-bodied “rovers” which also live on land but move faster than the walkers. They mate more frequently but less spectacularly. They are more numerous than flyers but less so than walkers.

A species of hard-bodied “floaters” can move on water. They are more numerous and also mate more frequently than flyers. But they are less numerous and also mate less frequently than rovers.

There are other species but they don’t seem to play significant roles in the Earth’s ecosphere.

That's probably not how we see ourselves. But appearances can be deceptive.


2 comments:

Liu Yunxia said...

'as the offsprings-to-matings ratio is very high' Can't help laugh at this.

StephenC said...

Yeah, I found the image amusing myself. I am glad you enjoyed it :)