You Are an Ape

Discussion in 'Science' started by ChiCowboy, Sep 9, 2021.

  1. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Quite a literal translation of "Panspermia" I guess.

    Of course, then you have one of the ultimate sci-fi satire stories, "Venus on the Half-Shell", by Phillip Jose-Farmer. Where the ultimate top tier of intelligent interstellar life is the cockroach. And at the end, the main character finally meets one of these aged super-intelligent god like roaches. And finds out that Earth was a planet they explored early on, did not think it was of any interest, so left. And quite literally, their crap is what eventually evolved into humans.

    In fact, most of the plot of Venus (sole human survivor looking for answers after Earth is destroyed by intergalactic bureaucrats) was itself recycled 3 years later as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But I always loved that ending, where the answer told to the last human alive is that he is the final result of some cockroach poop left behind. I first read that almost 40 years ago, and still find it funny.
     
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  2. DEFinning

    DEFinning Well-Known Member Donor

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    That was an impressive quote: it included the idea I'd mentioned, of alien intervention on Earth, as well as had a cockroach faulting Gviirl for the same thing, "imprecise language," as I was addressing in your post. It makes me curious, though, how the author of A Hitchhiker's Guide...could have gotten away with plagiarizing a plot-- though perhaps that was not quite what you meant, by "recycled?" Why, even, would an author want to use someone else's plot? It almost makes me want to read them both, to compare. Do you have a theory as to what made the redux so much more popular than the original? The title?

    My reading in this literary vein is limited to most of Vonnegut's books (but which lose their hilarious novelty, for me, on re-reading), and a few of Phillip K. Dick's.


    The thing about the name Atum which strikes me, is its somewhat similarity to, "Adam," (and both, of course, to the word "atom"). Making this connection seem less far fetched, is that the modern English word descends through Latin, from the original Greek "atomos," meaning indivisible. More exactly, the root meaning is, "not + to cut." The same root is used in the name Thomas, meaning "twin."

    To be precise, in my own posts, I'll add that I believe Atum is pronounced more like, "a tomb," than a-tum. Though, the "t," may have been pronounced more like an English, "d"-- so, a doom? For now, I guess only the Ancient, celestial Cockroach knows.
     
  3. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Well, part of it was that it was fairly high (in 1975) in sexual content. And Mr. Jose-Farmer did not publish it under his own name.

    The name he used? You might get a kick out of it. Kilgore Trout. He got permission from Kurt Vonnegut himself, and based part of it on his own work, and wrote in his style.

    [​IMG]

    As for recycling, you have to remember that HHGTTH started as a radio series in 1978 in the UK before it was turned into a book in 1979. And it was even more high in satire, so other than the basic plot could have come from almost anything.
     
  4. Polydectes

    Polydectes Well-Known Member

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    Ape is a colloquial term Define does including tailless primates including gorillas orangatangs chimpanzees and gibbons.

    The humans are not apes they are primates but not apes does the term was designated to describe non-human species.
     
  5. Gelecski7238

    Gelecski7238 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Amen and a slice of humble pie for all those who disagree with the above. My comment on the following is that the similarity has been downgraded to about 67 %. Humans lost some good genes in whatever transformation process occurred. We don't have the ape's genes that protect them from high rates of heart disease.

     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
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