Page 76 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Homo Aquatilis

also read science fiction, and have quite an appetite for antique
MacGuffins with a pedigree of cosmic—therefore theological—
significance. I would suggest that the obvious point of separation of
the two hominins is the Noachic flood. A pseudo-scientific
controversy remains about whether the great deluge appearing in
the legends of disparate cultures has any historical veracity—that
has been enough to convince the Creationists, among others, that
Genesis presents a real occurrence in human memory. Now, if
Homo aquatilis had been around at that time, total inundation of
the planet would not pose a problem for them—the ark didn’t have
a fish tank, after all. And, to the extent that the Bible describes H.
sapiens alive at that time, then his water-breathing cousins must
have already been alive, as well: their split had to have occurred tens
or hundreds of thousands of years before the flood. So you could
posit that the cataclysm was the cause of the estrangement. And the
proof would be that holy relic: a piece of the ark, perhaps its tiller.
The H. sapiens scientists could carbon date it to some date
coinciding with a comet collision in the distant past capable of
drowning Earth. Without that piece of wood, the story could take a
turn for the worse: the astronauts could have tried to live on Mars
without an underwater support team, and failed.”
Perversity nodded, now unsure of where the drama should be
located. The possibilities would percolate, producing a potable
potion. Perhaps.

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