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and prospering together. The Bug Facers never
joined them, cause they were afraid and xenophobic.
And there was one other advanced species that
didn’t join – and from them would come
the downfall of the alliance.
The Ruin Haunters were much like other species
twisted by the Qu. But on their world, the
cities of the Star People hadn’t been completely
destroyed. So the Ruin Haunters had access
to remnants of the Star Peoples’ technology
and knowledge, which allowed them to advance
at a dangerous pace. Their technology developed
so fast that their social and political structures
didn’t keep up, and they almost destroyed
themselves in a series of worldwide nuclear
wars. This baptism by fire hardened the Ruin
Haunters and kinda drove them crazy. They
convinced themselves that they alone were
the true descendants and heirs of the Star
People, and that only they deserved to reclaim
the legacy of the golden age of their ancestors.
So when the other human species formed their
alliance, the Ruin Haunters refused to participate.
But the Ruin Haunters’ sun was rapidly expanding,
and threatened to burn and destroy their worlds.
So the Ruin Haunters used their super-advanced
technology to abandon their organic bodies
and replace them with machines. They became
the Gravitals – floating metal spheres that
could mould the environment around them with
gravity fields. They were entirely mechanical.
But they still had human minds, coded into
quantum computers. So they still had human
ambitions – and human delusions. Twisted
with neurotic narcissistic hubris, the Gravitals
started to exterminate all other life. And
the other human species were unable to stop
them. The Gravitals would come to a human
world and block out their sun behind a vast
black sail. If the choked, dying world managed
to resist, they were finished off with an
asteroid. The Gravitals didn’t hate other
species. They just didn’t see them as people,
and exterminated them like one might swat
a fly. So all the Snake People, the Tool Breeders,
Pterosapients, and the others, who had worked
so hard to survive, were all snuffed out one
by one.
The only survivors of these genocides were
the shy and xenophobic Bug Facers. For reasons
unknown, they alone were kept alive, and the
Gravitals used them as Subjects for biological
experimentation. The Gravitals twisted them
into new forms so strange that they made the
work of the Qu look tame. As well as servants,
and labourers, they made Subjects into bizarre
art pieces, like creatures that existed only
to play the tune of a particular pop song
on its modified throat and fingers. They made
whole elaborate artificial ecologies of doomed
human flesh purely for entertainment and curiosity.
The Gravitals recycled and repurposed organic
life the way someone might tinker with computer
parts, or recycle trash. And for millions
of years that was how organic life existed
in the Machine Empire. But not all the Gravitals
saw life the same way. Some religious and
philosophical sects among the Gravitals argued
that all forms of life had rights. They secretly
created human species who could live and think
freely. Some Gravitals even fell in love with
their human creations. Gravital society became
divided between the Tolerant Gravitals who
respected human life, and the hardline conservative
pan-mechanical Gravitals. This division threatened
to tear the Machine Empire apart. So the Gravitals
looked for a common enemy to unify against.
For millions of years, the Gravitals and the
Asteromorphs had watched each other nervously
– the Gravitals on the planets, and the
Asteromorphs in space. They both were massively
powerful, and feared that war could destroy
them both. But in attempt to unite their divided
society, the Gravitals chose to start a war
with Asteromorphs. The resulting conflict
raged for millions of years, and scarred uncounted
stars, but in the end, the Asteromorphs triumphed,
and defeated the Gravitals, toppling the all-powerful
Machine Empire.
And the Asteromporphs decided to clean up
the mess the machines had made. They took
the surviving humans who the Gravitals had
twisted, and created habitable worlds for
them to live in. The Asteromorphs played God,
seeding life across the galaxy. And the human
species rose reborn as inheritors of the war-torn
worlds – under the watchful eye of the Asteromorphs.
The Asteromorphs wanted to ensure that no
genocidal assholes would ever conquer the
galaxy again. So they created a smaller simpler
version of themselves called the Terrestrials,
to live on the human worlds. The Terrestrials
played the role of kings, prophets, and caretakers,
guiding their worlds along a wise path. It
didn’t always work out too well. Sometimes
worlds rebelled, so the Asteromorphs destroyed
them. Sometimes the Terrestrials were corrupt,
and played god, and exploited their subjects.
But one way or another, the human worlds spread,
and formed a prosperous galactic empire.
The Gravitals weren’t completely destroyed
by the Asteromorphs. Turned out, it was really
useful to have super-advanced machines around.
The Asteromorphs disabled their gravity weapons,
and numbed their minds a bit to discourage
rebellion. And used the Gravitals as labourers
to work in dangerous environments. These New
Machines were given nanotechnological bodies
that could transform into any shape. They
eventually became citizens of the empire,
but were often discriminated against – machines
were never fully trusted after the Gravitals’
atrocities.
Eventually the human-Asteromorph empire made
contact with life from other galaxies – including
the Amphicephali, these weird snakes that
had snakes inside their snakes. Apparently
these creatures had an evolutionary history
just as long and complex as humanity had.
And after all they’d been through, the life
forms of both galaxies were finally old enough
and mature enough to meet peacefully, without
conflict.
This video won’t describe all of inter-galactic
history. The stories are endless – how the
united galaxies re-encountered and defeated
the Qu, how they cradled their suns in artificial
shells, and crossed space through wormholes.
But one moment worth relating is the rediscovery
of Earth. A lone researcher located the birthplace
of humanity – where all the Asteromorphs
and Machines and post-humans could trace their
origins. Earth had gone stagnant and feral
by then – an obscure empty world. But after
half a billion years of absence, humans returned
to their homeworld – changed beyond recognition.
I have to end with a confession. Humans, Asteromorphs,
Machines, and all their descendants are now
extinct. They’ve been dead for a billion
years. This video is just our best approximation
of their history, based on the available archaeological
evidence. We don’t know what killed the
humans. Maybe some unimaginably destructive
war. Maybe their empire broke up, and each
world suffered their own slow private death.
Some claim that humanity migrated into some
higher plane of existence. We don’t know
what happened, and ultimately, it doesn’t
matter. The story of humanity was never about
its end. Not about its ultimate domination
of galaxies, or its transcendence from reality.
Being human was always about the daily lives
of people, from the love-songs of the carefree
Hedonists, the families of the Sail People
sharing a meal, to the pontifications of the
Pterosapiens, to. Grander narratives and absolute
ideals are what led to humanity’s worst
atrocities – the Gravitals massacred to
reclaim the past, the Qu conquered for some
fanatical idealised future. Living for some
abstract ultimate goal so often leads to destruction.
So when you look on the remains of the long-gone
human species, remember that it’s the present
that matters, not the past or future. What
you do today shapes tomorrow, not the other
way round. So Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!
All Tomorrows is a story written and illustrated
by C. M. Kosemen. This video was a shortened
retelling of his tale, with some additional
imagery. Kosemen is an artist, writer and
researcher who does heaps of fascinating work
in paleontology, history, surreal art and
all sorts of stuff, so go check out his website,
and his YouTube videos, and consider supporting
him on Patreon. Also, since this video will..
probably be demonetised, consider supporting
Alt Shift X on Patreon too. We got more Song
of Ice and Fire videos coming soon, and Episode
1 of the Alt Shift X podcast is out now, with
an interview with the authors of The Expanse,
so go check it out.
Thanks for watching, and thanks to the Patrons
Sonjerbolan, Wyld Words, Alexandra Lamoureux,
Varun Pramanik, Najeeb Hashi, Ashley Daniel,
Colt Foster, Irish Steph, and sams2006. Cheers.