Space for Evolution

by Zurab Andguladze

  “I’m not used to such a long speech—my throat is getting parched,” he explained. As soon as the man had quenched his thirst, he continued.

  “Once I was sitting on the grass, I turned on the camera on my phone. I remember that I had this witty idea to film my neighbors. I wanted to show them later how they’d listened to a story about science, instead of working.”

  Here Iase grinned as if inviting Veana to indulgently react to his childish naivety.

  “It happened that this record, with some deleted useless dialogue, stayed with me for life. I copied it to each of my new gadgets, and gradually learned it by heart. I could tell it myself, now, but I thought it would be more interesting and plausible if you saw everything yourself. So, from this moment on the recording will begin, and along the way I’ll explain to you who is who, and, of course, I’ll translate their conversation.”

  Chapter 8

  Iase disappeared from the screen after the preamble and a motionless picture appeared in his place, the one that he already partially described. About a dozen of men were sitting or reclining on a grass in the shadow of acacias and chestnuts trees.

  They all looked at a man who sat on a large, almost completely covered with moss, boulder. He had hands on his knees, widespread elbows, and was the one talking. This individual in about early forties had a pale face and thin but still wavy hair. His facial features didn’t stand out except for big pensive eyes. At the background Veana saw the hill’s slope, covered with bright green corn lit by frantic midday sun.

  “This person, sitting on the stone, is Mikheil Gumanadze, a fellow scientist I told you about,” Iase explained, and immediately after that the frozen image came to life.

  “Yes, that’s what I’m saying— those interstellar rockets would transform human brain.” Veana heard Iase’s translation accompanying scientist’s clear but muffled speech.

  "Bijos!" someone exclaimed loudly. The camera turned to him and showed an unshaven, tanned man of average physique, with his hairy chest visible from under his half unbuttoned shirt.

  “This is Mikheil’s childhood friend and seemingly his former classmate, Rati Samushi.” clarified Iase, remaining unseen. He didn’t even try to translate the word that Rati blurted out. However, this spoiled nothing —Veana heard this expression of amazement many times from Iase and his relatives. On the other hand, as she noted, the rest of villagers were only displaying polite curiosity.

  "Mikheil Batono, did you say that human brain will change because of those upcoming missions?" Asked a man with half-gray hair combed back, carefully shaved broad face, and a thick mustache.

  “Yes, Tariel batono, I said exactly that.” The scientist grinned friendly.

  “Biology teacher Tariel Qiqadze; he always worked in the field helping his neighbours during summer break at school." Iase said, without appearing in the frame. He also didn't translate the word "batono" but Veana already knew that in Georgian it means "sir" or "mister." She heard it quite often too.

  “Honestly,” teacher smiled in slight confusion. Despite the friendly atmosphere, he still tried to avoid explicitly call into question scientist’s words, “for me, this is a completely unexpected statement. I mean, rockets have already been flying for about a century and a half, why didn’t they change our brain?”

  The scholar explained, “This time we’re planning to send not just exploratory missions, but missions to populate six exoplanets that are admittedly twins of Earth, orbiting around stars that are supposedly twins of our Sun.”

  “And that will affect our brain?” In spite of his diligence to hide it, unbelief was still noticeable in pedagogue’s voice. Veana caught it too, even in foreign for her language.

  “Let me explain my friends,” Mikheil casted short glances at each of his neighbours, “after colonizing an extrasolar planet mankind would live in two separated areas.” Here he moved his left palm as if pushing something towards the sky. “That means the alteration of human natural habitat, because from that moment on it would include interstellar space. This alteration in its turn would inevitably alter human itself, since every living creature tries to adapt to changed conditions. As you know, even better than me, batono Tariel, this is the law of nature.”

  This emphasizing of his erudition obviously delighted teacher and he even stole a look at his co-villagers to see if they grasped this.

  Meanwhile Rati cut into the chat again, squinting at the scientist with skepticism, “you said that when someone would settle on another planet then we here would become smarter? Hah, who said this, Misha, is there any proof of it?”

  The scientist nodded smiling, "there’re examples of such of, hum, growing wiser in history. I mean examples of the transformation of our ancestors because of change of their environment. The very first such change happened when forests in Africa turned into savannah, and some apes, driven out of the shrinking woods by their stronger rivals, found themselves in an altered area."

  "And this is the reason for sending these missiles?" this time teacher Tariel showed his doubt patently.

  “No, now humanity wants to follow an example of other event — the voyages of Christopher Columbus,” answered scientist.

  "Bijos!" Rati shouted again. Other villagers just like before were silently listening . Here frame twitched, obviously "director" cut out some fragment of the record, maybe because villagers just repeated Rati’s shout.

  Next, Veana saw Tariel on her TV screen who said, “I’m sure you can explain this. Has Columbus’s discovery really changed human environment so much and, moreover, um, human brain? Hadn’t people traveled and discovered new lands before him?"

  After a barely noticeable stop, he added, “the fact that the discovery of America changed the world… is it any news at all?”

  “Of course, I’ll explain anything you want but not just in a single sentence,” Gumanadze like always smiled amiably. “So, America wasn’t just another territory. The journey to it appeared to be totally different. Now travelers had to sail not along the land but had to cross enormous oceanic expanse and for people back then ocean was the same thing as space for us today — a constant mortal danger.”

  Finishing his sentence, he stood up and reached for an aluminum mug nearby on the grass. Scientist filled it with water from a spring and moistened his throat. After he slaked his thirst, teenage boy joined the conversation.

  “Dato Kenkaradze, neighbour. He is older than me, that year he graduated high school.” Veana heard another background comment.

  Next moment the record went on again and Veana saw boy’s excitement, apparently because he dared to talk to such an important person. “Batono Mikheil, we learned that Vikings reached America earlier than Columbus. Why that didn’t change, m-m, human brain?"

  Scientist turned to him and answered seriously, “They didn't know that they had discovered a new continent. Vikings thought that they just stumbled on another island, not the New World. In addition, and what is most important, they had no necessity to strive for places beyond the deadly ocean."

  “Did this necessity appear later? What was it?” teacher immediately demanded clarification.

  Gumanadze nodded, “yes, this necessity appeared when the Moscow and Ottoman empires blocked east and the Moors closed south. Thus, during Columbus’ times Europeans happened to be cut off from the rest of the world. The only thing that remained for them was unbounded water to the west. They just huddled on the edge of the land. They needed a way out, new shorter paths, not around Africa, to the rest of the world, to the new knowledge. After all, no one wants to be confined even within a continent. And the practical reason was the need for spices."

  This information caused quiet long pause. Then teacher, after nodding a couple of times, hesitatingly but, as always, respectfully asked, “you mentioned Europeans. Are you going to say that brain improvement only happened to them? With all due respect Mikheil batono, but I'm afraid, um, for me it’s a somewhat strange conclusion, isn’t it?

&nb
sp; “Not at all, Batono Tariel, it was only the circumstance that pushed biology of people living on a certain territory. And I want to emphasis– this concerns not just Europeans but all Europe dwellers, notwithstanding their roots."

  “And their brain really had changed?” teacher showed another portion of disbelieve.

  "Let's consider," former villager and now the guest continued his explanation, “after this resettlement, these nations found themselves divided by a deadly abyss. But how could parts of one population forget each other, especially forget their kin, their colonies? They had constant need for communication and joint business that forced both sides to cross hostile space very often. In its turn, this prompted them to invent safer and faster ways of travel and socialization, to adapt to the new conditions and, as we know, only proper genetic modifications could provide such adaptation."

  "You saying it, Mikheil Batono, like you have evidences of such modification." teacher quickly inserted himself into the scientist’s speech.

  The latter continued, as if not noticing this intervention, essentially answering exactly to it, “here: European dwellers, after they started to live on two shores of deathly space, had discovered all laws of nature, without exception! They wiped off all the white spots from the surface of Earth, invented all the machines, gadgets, and technological processes that we’re using today!"

  He stopped abruptly and looked at Tariel with a question. Seeing the understanding in the teacher’s eyes, Mikheil continued, “in other words, after changing their habitat, European inhabitants as if turned into aliens, who came to Earth to reveal for mankind the secrets of nature.”

  He cleared his throat, "I mean literally every secret we know today — the laws of gravity, astronomy, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, of space and time, of quantum world, genetics, and cosmology. They found out what matter is made of, they learned how the Universe works and where did it originate from."

  Before continuing, he looked around at his audience, "now tell me, could it be a trivial coincidence that the small part of world's population, living on one limited territory, suddenly had discovered everything that I’d just listed? Could such an enormous breakthrough happen without suitable reason? Or it really needed outstanding basis — the discovery of the New World beyond the deadly space — the phenomenon equal to the finding of a new habitable planet?”

  He again inspected faces of his listeners before resuming narration, “And if they were so smart why they didn’t show that before Columbus? Why European dwellers didn't have any significant achievements until that event? It wasn’t them who invented written language, gunpowder, firearms, digits, algebra, geometry, and so on. And what is the most important — it wasn’t them who created first cities and civilization itself! Those were residents of Europe size region called Middle East. Their environment had also suitably changed after the end of the last ice age.”

  He drank some more water and added, “this is the way mankind moves forward. I mean, when the alteration of living condition forces a certain group of people to change. Later, gradually, this modification spreads across the globe.”

  He made another big gulp before the next sentence, “but now there are no possibilities to alter human habitat neither on Earth nor in solar system. The finding of the suitable planet somewhere near other star is the only way to change us. This is, Batono Tariel, exactly how new missions differ from old ones.”

  In response, teacher was hesitantly shaking his head for some time and then he asked as if actually just wanting to gain time, “I don’t know… indeed, each new science theory originated…, hem, well, how can I argue against facts but still, is the human brain really able to change so easily and quickly?”

  Scientist nodded, “genetic modifications under steady conditions flow slowly, for millions of years. But when the habitat changes quickly then mutations should happen also faster and, thus, their result — evolution, also accelerates. Biology is amazingly quick, heh; remember the astronauts at ISS, their bones, eyes, and their brain too, it adapts to a new ability of 3D movement.”

  After these words, unexpectedly, silence reigned under the trees. "Cameraman" began to display his neighbors, one after another. Men of different ages had equally serious expressions; each of them sunk in deep thought. Then Tariel smiled and said, “so, it turns out that if not for the oceans between the continents, we would have been still lived in Medieval times.”

  “Yes, this is also the manifestation of another well-known rule — demand creates supply,” Mikheil returned the smile.

  The frame jerked again and now the teacher drawled, “we-ell, it’s curious why they decided to create such an enterprise just nowadays?”

  The scientist replied resolutely, “Nowadays humanity is ready for such kind of utterly expensive task that could only be fulfilled with the participation of almost all countries. At present, mankind could cope with such huge work because it is rich and peaceful enough, able to cooperate like never before in history. Only such strong, rich, and, more or less, united civilization could dare to leave for the extrasolar planet. The weak ones, sank in wars and devastation, fighting against pandemic and hunger, don’t have time to think about such things.”

  “So, Misha, we must first settle on Mars and then we’ll become smarter?” Rati asked with his usual wry grin. Veana gained impression that this guy listened to his former class-mate inattentively or he didn’t grasp what he heard.

  Scholar, who, up until now, was looking at the teacher sitting down the stream, turned to his childhood friend. Man was sitting on the opposite side, across the stream, “By the way, Rati, if Mars, or Venus, or the Moon would have been suitable places like America, we would had chance to become an interplanetary civilization first. But since they don’t fit, we’re forced to omit this stage and become directly an interstellar species, ha-ha.”

  Hearing this, Rati also grinned wryly.

  Scientist continued more seriously, “actually no telescope can establish true suitability of a distant world.”

  “Do you mean they plan to send people?” teacher frowned. Veana got another impression —only this man understood what scientist tried to tell them.

  “No,” Mikheil replied, “this is technically unattainable. Each journey would last for centuries. Fortunately, modern technology can create earthly life upon arrival on a distant planet if it would appear truly livable.”

  Here the picture changed sharply and Veana realized that she saw another moment of editing. Now Rati asked a question, as if directly arising from the previous conversation, again with grin on his face, “Misha, why should we become smarter?”

  Shaking his head overseas guest explained, “In order to travel interstellar distances as easily as I did a couple of days ago when crossing the, insuperable prior to Columbus, ocean. This will allow us to avoid imminent stagnation and subsequent extinction of our species.”

  “Of course,” he chuckled, “this won't happen tomorrow, but we have to prepare in advance because at the last moment is not the time to start such a project, hehehe. It will take a very, very long time to harvest results from such an undertaking because its scale is really unimaginable. Even reaching the moon after the discovery of America took five hundred years."

  Hearing this Rati asked another question, "If these travels would take this enormous time, then why can't we wait until technology allows us to reach those planets quickly, rather than centuries later?"

  Gumanadze answered with a friendly smile, "if Christopher Columbus had been waiting for airplane to take him to America, we would be still unaware that there is the New World across the ocean."

  Scholar took a look at his audience once again. Camera pushed back and all the villagers got in Veana's sight. Against the background of sharply reigned silence, a creek as if started to babble louder, being accompanied with the chirping of birds from somewhere above.

  “Pardon me, batono Mikheil, but I also have some news at last,” some old villager with big head and robust
stature broke a hush. His short gray hair gathered round his bald patch as a skirt.

  He turned to his neighbors: “guys, stop traveling around the space. The heat abated already, even clouds appeared in the sky, look up. Mikheil, please let them go or, as I see, they are really going to fly to the Moon or somewhere else, ha-ha-ha!"

  That man sat slightly aside and when Iase focused the lens on him others were lost from the sight. Seeing this, “cameraman” moved the image away and, thus, allowed all listeners return to the screen.

  “This is our neighbour, Ladinka… late,” Iase’s voice explained.

  Scientist smiled. The villagers, as if awakening, first were looking around, then started lifting their heads to the sky, and, finally, began getting up with groans.

  Teacher summed up the conversation in a friendly tone, "well, Mikheil Batono, I hope you would end your story tomorrow because I have a couple more questions."

  “No way ‘tomorrow’,” the guest objected. “I came to my old home and are you not going to visit me? So, all of you are invited to me this evening, after you finish your work and that…” he grinned. “I wish I could help you now but I’m doubtful about my shape.”

  “You should have been studying at school like me and today you would have been in good shape like me, and, also, you wouldn’t have missed a hoe so much,” Rati said with a wry smile.

  These words made laugh not only villagers but even Veana smiled sparingly. She didn't hear scientist’s answer because here the old image disappeared from the screen and Iase himself replaced it.

  As before, he was soaring in the center of his cabin, “of course, today everyone knows about the purpose of the project SQP but back then idea just began to penetrate mankind’s consciousness. So, Mikheil’s information amazed me with its huge ambitions and, what was important for me, it turned out to be a very serious matter.”

  Once again he drank some water, “I mean, before that chat I always had impression that people on distant planets and similar stuff, that I liked so much, were just fairy tales, intended for teenagers to watch at cinemas and to read in books."