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And the sheepdogs shall inherit the earth
Oct. 16th, 2014 03:27 pmSo I caught the tail end of a History channel "documentary" that I think was supposed to hook in Christians with talk of the Book of Revelation WOOOOooooOOOOOoooOOOoo.
So anyway, it was a bunch of speculation about what would happen to the Earth after all of humanity suddenly vanishes. WOOOoooOOOoo. What I caught was after 500 years after humans disappear, and they showed the Christ the Redeemer statue falling over much like one of Saddam Hussein's statues in Iraq and the walls of St. Peter's basilica finally giving way to the weight and outward pressure of the basilica dome. So dramatic.
Then, 1000 year after humanity disappears, the Coliseum will be the only thing left standing in Rome! But due to mounds on bird poo and the seeds in it, the structure will eventually weaken and an earthquake will finish the job. No more churches will be left; how gloomy! But, sheepdogs!
Yes, sheepdogs are the last bit of goodness in the world; sheepdogs, even after a millennium, are still herding flocks of sheep toward better pasture, just like their good masters taught them so many generations ago. And, no, sheepdogs won't go feral and become wolves. Sheep herding and sheep raising is too sweet of a deal to give up.
It made me want to think on this weird alternate universe a bit more. The only remains of humanity are pyramid and mastaba-like structures and sheepdogs herding around sheep. The earthworks over the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are never built, so there is no warning to the sheepdogs that THIS PLACE IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR.
So, dogs can't most likely do any selective breeding of themselves or of sheep. They can, however, read human emotion very well, be trained to herd sheep, and to some degree, train other dogs to herd sheep. They can also kill overly aggressive or sickly sheep. What do the sheepdogs get out of the arrangement? Well, a plentiful source of meat and a big dog-sheep combined pack. What do the sheep get? Well, immediately after humanity disappears, sheep will be as docile as ever so they'll be herded, just like always. But, they do get protection from predators because of the weird predators that only eat them sometimes. The weird barking predators do eat the other predators all the time, though.
Hmm. I think that the sheepdogs will accidentally breed sheep for meatiness and docility rather than wool, so depending on the local climate sheep coats will be very different than what they are now. Dogs that aren't intelligent enough to learn to herd sheep will either be chased off or killed, as will overly aggressive dogs. So, dogs that are intelligent and docile will at least be more successful.
Hmmm. Would dogs ever develop the ability to use tools? Nah, unlikely. It would be quite an extraordinary sequence of events that would force that to happen. By that time the sheep-sheepdog mutualism would have proven so successful that there would several such pairings between animals that evolved from sheepdogs and animals that evolved from sheep. Plus a whole bunch of uncivilized animals.
I just built the weirdest world.
So anyway, it was a bunch of speculation about what would happen to the Earth after all of humanity suddenly vanishes. WOOOoooOOOoo. What I caught was after 500 years after humans disappear, and they showed the Christ the Redeemer statue falling over much like one of Saddam Hussein's statues in Iraq and the walls of St. Peter's basilica finally giving way to the weight and outward pressure of the basilica dome. So dramatic.
Then, 1000 year after humanity disappears, the Coliseum will be the only thing left standing in Rome! But due to mounds on bird poo and the seeds in it, the structure will eventually weaken and an earthquake will finish the job. No more churches will be left; how gloomy! But, sheepdogs!
Yes, sheepdogs are the last bit of goodness in the world; sheepdogs, even after a millennium, are still herding flocks of sheep toward better pasture, just like their good masters taught them so many generations ago. And, no, sheepdogs won't go feral and become wolves. Sheep herding and sheep raising is too sweet of a deal to give up.
It made me want to think on this weird alternate universe a bit more. The only remains of humanity are pyramid and mastaba-like structures and sheepdogs herding around sheep. The earthworks over the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are never built, so there is no warning to the sheepdogs that THIS PLACE IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR.
So, dogs can't most likely do any selective breeding of themselves or of sheep. They can, however, read human emotion very well, be trained to herd sheep, and to some degree, train other dogs to herd sheep. They can also kill overly aggressive or sickly sheep. What do the sheepdogs get out of the arrangement? Well, a plentiful source of meat and a big dog-sheep combined pack. What do the sheep get? Well, immediately after humanity disappears, sheep will be as docile as ever so they'll be herded, just like always. But, they do get protection from predators because of the weird predators that only eat them sometimes. The weird barking predators do eat the other predators all the time, though.
Hmm. I think that the sheepdogs will accidentally breed sheep for meatiness and docility rather than wool, so depending on the local climate sheep coats will be very different than what they are now. Dogs that aren't intelligent enough to learn to herd sheep will either be chased off or killed, as will overly aggressive dogs. So, dogs that are intelligent and docile will at least be more successful.
Hmmm. Would dogs ever develop the ability to use tools? Nah, unlikely. It would be quite an extraordinary sequence of events that would force that to happen. By that time the sheep-sheepdog mutualism would have proven so successful that there would several such pairings between animals that evolved from sheepdogs and animals that evolved from sheep. Plus a whole bunch of uncivilized animals.
I just built the weirdest world.
