...While you were sleeping...
And dreaming about that big rock candy mountain...
I was thinking about Roly Polies and Koala Bears.
A Roly Poly (Roll-E Pole-E) is also called a sow bug. They are innocous little millipede-like critters, and they roll themselves up into a ball when they sense danger. This serves no purpose whatsoever when a ten-year-old Okie wants to step on them. It must be a good survival skill though, because they've been around in about the same form for millions of years. So they are protected from some things.
The chitonous segments comprising their shells fit together perfectly to protect all but the tips of their little feet. They can be pried apart with a needle or a knife, but this is not something that occurrs in nature.
What they eat and how they reproduce are beyond my realm of knowledge; the simple fact that they have remained stable in the same form for a long time is significant.
They have ceased to evolve.
They have dead-ended. They will never be more than they are.
From our point of view, most of the creatures that we share the world with are the same way. evolution appears to have ceased. But we know how to force evolution to do what we want it to do. We can (and have) forced plants and animals into sturdier, hardier and more productive states. Hybreds, however, are generally sterile, and are thusly not part of the evolutionary process. Most of the "evolution" that we have forced is a compromise; we can produce wheat that will resist harder winters, but is then suseptable to more diseases. We can produce a dog with more intelligence, but they only live half as long as their ancestors.
Interestingly, we are producing humans now who live up to and well past the reproductive age with many handicaps that would have killed them shortly after birth only a generation ago. Simple stuff, really. The kid with the pop-bottle glasses? The tiger would have gotten him for sure.
Wow. This is starting to sound vaguely Hitleresque. Hear me out, please.
Selective breeding: breed for strength, breed for intelligence. Has there ever been a movement to breed for love, for empathy? How would you do that?
Mean People Suck!
So... don't kill anyone, just prevent them from reproducing. Reward them for not reproducing. Because we're gonna eliminate mean people. Before they reproduce. That kid in Oklahoma who stepped on the roly poly? Cut his balls off, figuritively speaking. Well, OK, it was a bug. Give him another chance, OK? But if he doesn't straighten out, if he starts being mean to other animals or people, then cut his balls off.
In two generations, there would be no mean people left, except for those that are running the system. But then, these people would need to be bred for meanness; after all, you can't cut people's balls off without being somewhat mean, can you? But they should be kept as a breed apart... no mixing allowed, please.
Rationality. Something else that should be encouraged. Xians, beware! Religions of all ilk will disappear in two generations. The labor that lovingly built cathedrals with the bodies of the unbelieving will go instead to actually improve the world. The priests will die of old age and hunger preaching to those in nursing homes, and the choruses of praise will be silent. Rationality shall reign!
And there shall be only one journal ring! Ooops! Is it too early to start joking about it? Of course it isn't!
O'Yeah! The Koala Bear! Well, there was this Koala Bear, y'see.... no, that's too long. Think about it, and we'll discuss it tomorrow.
or whatever the hell it is you dream about...
Hitler had it all wrong: he was much too impatient, and his targets for elimination were all wrong. He inadvertently was fulfilling a greater purpose, however, in that he himself left no progenity. His personal genes are gone.