The Science of the Mandalorian by Mark Brake

Author:Mark Brake
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510770607
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2023-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Secret of the Space Whales

What kind of evolutionary mechanism can we imagine for whales migrating into space? Who knows, maybe Star Trek has a point and the whales have been aliens all along, conducting a sophisticated series of experiments on humans (like the white mice in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). But all joking and ridicule aside, there is a possible scenario by which the whales could have ended up in space.

Consider the following science fiction movie classic: Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), described by Kubrick as a “scientific definition of God.” It is a story of the effective creation and resurrection of humanity under the episodic guiding hand of superior alien beings. Kubrick’s motion picture traces humanity’s journey through three stages. The journey begins with Stone Age humans. A small band of human-apes are on the long, pathetic road to species extinction. But they are visited by mysterious and elusive aliens: an artifact in the shape of a black monolith. The mysterious presence of the monolith transforms the hominid horizon. Ape becomes human, and humanity’s ultimate journey to superman begins.

When humans evolve to the space age, the potent evolutionary force of the alien monolith is triggered once more. Finally, the odyssey of self-discovery culminates under the watchful presence of the alien monoliths when modern humanity, in the form of an individual astronaut, comes to an end. The movie screen replete with the massive presence of planet Earth, the fetus of a superhuman star-child floats into view. The star-child moves through spacetime without artifice, the image suggesting a new superhuman power. Humanity has transcended all earthly limitations.

You see my point? Sure, it’s a solution based more in science fiction than fact, but if Kubrick can imagine an alien intelligence so immense that it can bestow superhuman powers on humanity, why can’t superwhale status be bestowed on the purrgils? (Notwithstanding the scientific unlikelihood of whale-like creatures such as the purrgils evolving on a planet other than Earth, of course.)

Picture the scene. A race of purrgils are minding their own business in the depths of their home ocean, foraging and exploring, migrating and mating, socializing and sleeping, and singing songs to their children. Up pops the same kind of interfering-but-elusive aliens as featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which eventually leads to the purrgils, like humans in Kubrick’s movie, being able to move through spacetime without artifice. And even hyperspace. We just don’t know. It might happen!

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