Exterminations

Discussing the weird and violent behavior of the naked apes

— Meuianga, but did you really do that?

— You said you wrote… what did you call it? A “Preface” for something one of the naked apes wrote?

— Is it possible? Can they write scientific treatises? Are they smart enough?

— Yes, Cadets, yes. I did that. I really wrote the preface of an Earthling’s book. I thought it was interesting. And, I would say, engaging. It is always a good thing to see the world from a viewpoint other than one’s own. And that’s how you learn things. Here is the book. You see, it is titled “Exterminations.”

— Strange, Meuianga, strange…. What is that figure in the background?

— Is it one of the naked apes? But they don’t have wings! It is impossible.

— And her eyes… what’s happening to her eyes?

— Again, cadets, we are becoming more and more involved with those apes’ habits and beliefs. And, yes, that figure is something I found engaging. See? They have this creature — they call it an “angel.” It is a winged ape. It flies, yes.

— But it is impossible, anatomically.

— That creature, the “angel,” wouldn’t have sufficient metabolic power to fly.

— Right, right, cadet Paihunu te ìpxnaawil eìay'itan. These creatures are only virtual. They exist as images that the apes form in their brains. And this one is called the “Angel of Death.”

— Fascinating, Meuianga, fascinating. But, the eyes…? They give me a strange sensation…

— Indeed. The angel is weeping. It is a facial expression of the apes to indicate sadness.

— Hmm….. Meuianga, these creatures never stop surprising us.

— But this story, the exterminations. You told us they tend to kill each other in large numbers. It is curious they do that. But do they understand their own madness?

— Are they intelligent enough to understand that? How can they be?

— Cadets, it is a long story. It has to do with the structure of their brain. You see, they have this big, bulbous head. It hosts a relatively large brain. It is actually larger than ours…

— Meuianga, you aren’t telling us that….

— That would be impossible.

— No, cadets, no. Don’t worry. They are not smarter than us. But they almost reach our level. You see, I told you about the structure of the brains of intelligent species in the galaxy. It is a question of the density of the neurons in the brain, not so much about the size of the braincase. You see, intelligent species in our galaxy are mostly the result of parallel evolution. So, we Reptilians have this gene, the  transketolase-like 1 (TKTL1), that affects the development of the radial glia in the brain which, in turn, generates neurons. As you know, it was genetically engineered at the time of the Mammal Wars, so it gave us an edge of our enemies. It makes us pack a huge number of neurons inside our brains. Well, the naked apes have the same gene. Other Earth mammals don’t have it. That makes the Naked Apes almost on par with us. And there is this big question of how they developed it. Interestingly, some ape scientists have recently identified this gene. But they never had the capability of genetically upgrading their brains. We are working on that. It is one of the mysteries of this species. But never mind that. As I said, one of them wrote this “book,” as they call these treatises. And I found it interesting enough that I wrote a comment on it. Here is what I wrote. I think you’ll find it interesting.

Foreword to “Exterminations” by Ugo Bardi

by Meuianga (honorable) Mera Te Aì 'Enge'ite, Chief Scientific Officer of the Reptilian Starfleet.

It is an unexpected honor for me to be invited to write the foreword for a book written by an Earthling who belongs to the species we Reptilians call the “Naked Apes.” But, after having studied this species for a long time, I have acquired a certain degree of knowledge about their habits and way of thinking, so I thought I could accept the offer as a challenge and an occasion for reflection.

The subject of this book is the habit of the naked apes of frequently engaging in mass exterminations of members of their own species. It is unfortunate that they show this trait so often because they are clever creatures, and they could do much better. However, they have evolved only up to a certain point, and they cannot get free of some disruptive habits that prevent them from reaching the level that would need to be defined as a truly intelligent species. The problem with the Naked Apes is that their honor rules are present only in an embryonic form and are easily overruled by their aggressivity. Their technologies keep developing and may become powerful enough to destroy them and perhaps even sterilize the whole planet. In addition, they are locked into a method of communication that they call the “Financial System,” which is based on a virtual entity called “money.” They don’t usually understand the huge damage that this system is doing to them and to the whole planetary ecosystem. For reasons that we Reptilians find hard to understand, this curious system leads individual apes to do anything to maximize the amount of this virtual entity, money, without realizing that their actions go directly against their collective well-being. Unfortunately, as I am writing these notes, they are engaged in a new bout of exterminations. They don’t seem to be able to learn from their past experience.

Despite their limitations, in the future the Naked Apes of Planet Earth may learn the honorable ways of the Reptilian race even though, for the time being, they are too primitive and unruly to be able to do that. However, this book proves they can improve. I believe that the text, although generated by the limited mind of an ape, provides interesting insights into the behavior and the way of thinking of these creatures. I will submit a translation as a specimen in exoethology to the Federation Headquarters at the Tannhäuser Gate.

May the Federation rule the Galaxy justly and wisely!

Mera Te Aì 'Enge'ite, Chief Scientific Officer.