Big Ol’ Sun
Posted on March 12, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 11 Comments
The clouds in yesterday’s sunset made the sun look about five times bigger than it actually is; this is what I imagine sunsets might look a few billion years from now, after the sun has started its expansion into red giant territory. Minus, you know, the grain silo. For some reason I think the land-walking squid who will inherit the planet from us will not use grain silos. But I could be wrong.
They may need them to feed their human-based slave-race, though more likely they will opt for something built underground to avoid making the landscape less aesthetically pleasing.
Very pretty sky. There’s something about sunrises and sunsets that make me want to ‘coo’ a lot.
Is that the squibbon of The Future is Wild (my son’s erstwhile favorite program) or some Watchman reference that would go right by me? Otherwise, I did not take part in the Recent Unpleasantness, but I still think you were 70 to 80 % right to be mad at the circumstances of your involvement and much more thoughtful than most people would be. Enjoy the light! I am stuck in the city already.
(And with regards to identity spoofing, if there is anyone besides Simon Pegg or Nick Frost calling themselves PrivateIron on your site, they’re stealing my bit!)
Dee, there are plenty of animals that would make better slaves than us. Credit the land walking squid with some taste and judgement! Let them enjoy life before they turn into incadescent calamari in the Red Sun of the Dying Earth.
PrivateIron@3: You’re not wrong about that! But I was figuring they’d probably elevate the other creatures above the human species to take on the roles of companions and fellow caretakers. Octopi for instance. They’re far better suited to such roles.
Though you do have a point. The human gene is more likely to end up in a deli sandwich.
That’s not a Grain Silo – it’s the top of the Walking Squid!
AARRRGGhhhh…..
Land-walking squid?
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh C’thulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
Actually, I read somewhere earlier (cannot for the life of me remember where, though) that the Sun’s increased UV output will make the Earth uninhabitable for higher lifeforms (say, anything above microbes) in 500 to 900 million years. So unless the landsquid invest in an orbital shade, they’ll find life a mite uncomfortable out of the water …
I’d expect lots of tall buildings like grain silos, with bars and things inside, for the squid who are nostalgic for their 3-d existence but are now stuck on the sadly 2-d surface.
I’m assuming land-walking squid would be horrified at the very idea of grain silos considering how flammable grain dust can be. They’d probably still be in awe of those strange apes who kept doing silly things like that.
PrivateIron @2; I think it’s actually a reference to Scalzi’s short story (the title of which escapes me) about alternate futures stemming from Hitler’s death. I believe the penultimate result of one of them was a society of squid inheriting the earth.
Ah, it was: “Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search Results”