4 ms·

While the topic is on. I am trying to find a short story I read some years ago (4-5) about the evolution of life on our planet in the far future. Warning, mass

While the topic is on. I am trying to find a short story I read some years ago (4-5) about the evolution of life on our planet in the far future. Warning, massive spoilers: There are like 5 or 6 mass extinction events followed by a new civilization each time built by a different specie. At some points a raven civilization goes on the moon (they always had an innate tendency to go higher) and find an old rover, then it jumps to another civ. and the earth is totally smooth and people are living in holes in the ground (this might be another story from Baxter). Then it's some earth inner core creatures fungi-like. It ends with the sun expansion making life on earth impossible and a mars creature pondering all that. Rings any bells ?

shadyarmsdealer 8y ago
Could it be Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon? It's a novel, not a short story, but it has the same structure you've described involving successive sentient races (including bird-like people) and the planets gradually becoming uninhabitable. Edit: Apparently Last and First Men was heavily influenced by a short story, "The Last Judgment" by J.B.S. Haldane. Source: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/fall99/end.html https://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/fall99/end.html. Maybe that's the one you remember?
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Thanks, I checked both but it's not it. It really was a short story, no more than ten minutes of reading. Also I distinctly remember the moon rover reference and emphasis that wouldn't likely be depicted as I remember it considering the 1927 date of publication of the short story. I am pretty sure the author wasn't a published author. It was a blog post.
tzahola 8y ago
How could the Earth be totally smooth?
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Dunno. Also, the author hints than the night is endless and cold and the child, which the author uses to convey that part of the story, is scolded by his parents and ordered to get back underground where it's warmer.
  - tzahola 8y ago
    Hmm... maybe it only looks smooth from space, like Venus or Uranus? An impenetrable cloud layer (like in The Matrix) would explain the cold on the surface and the endless night.
- civilitty 8y ago
  Extreme weather with atmospheric acidification that slowly eats away at everything on the surface like a polishing a rock. It would take hundreds of thousands or millions of years but it's plausible as the sun slowly expands, which causes tidal stresses and significantly increases surface temperatures making the landscape a lot more dynamic.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Someone probably deployed a plot device.
pavel_lishin 8y ago
That sounds fascinating; try https://old.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/ https://old.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/
maxerickson 8y ago
Maybe Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. It's a good book to check off the list but it is stylistically tedious.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  I'm adding it to the list, thanks.
- danieltillett 8y ago
  I always thought the style was part of the intention to express the enormous amount of time described. When you get to the end of the book you are left with the feeling like you have lived a billion years :)
Pete_D 8y ago
John Michael Greer - The Next Ten Billion Years https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-billion-years/ https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-b...
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Thank you, that's the one :).
johnchristopher 8y ago
Now, here's the interesting part. I was sure I first read that story when it was first submitted on HN. Sure enough here it is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860839, I even put out a comment in a discussion. The funny thing now is that someone mentioned the very wikipedia article `Timeline of the far future` in that short story submission. Ah, patterns.
- speeq 8y ago
  I came across this article by looking up Neptune and going down a wikipedia rabbit hole after seeing another submission that's currently on the front page: `Supersharp Images from New VLT Adaptive Optics` https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17556955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17556955
drosna 8y ago
Sounds like The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

shadyarmsdealer 8y ago

Could it be Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon? It's a novel, not a short story, but it has the same structure you've described involving successive sentient races (including bird-like people) and the planets gradually becoming uninhabitable. Edit: Apparently Last and First Men was heavily influenced by a short story, "The Last Judgment" by J.B.S. Haldane. Source: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/fall99/end.html https://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/fall99/end.html. Maybe that's the one you remember?

johnchristopher 8y ago
Thanks, I checked both but it's not it. It really was a short story, no more than ten minutes of reading. Also I distinctly remember the moon rover reference and emphasis that wouldn't likely be depicted as I remember it considering the 1927 date of publication of the short story. I am pretty sure the author wasn't a published author. It was a blog post.

tzahola 8y ago

How could the Earth be totally smooth?

johnchristopher 8y ago
Dunno. Also, the author hints than the night is endless and cold and the child, which the author uses to convey that part of the story, is scolded by his parents and ordered to get back underground where it's warmer.
- tzahola 8y ago
  Hmm... maybe it only looks smooth from space, like Venus or Uranus? An impenetrable cloud layer (like in The Matrix) would explain the cold on the surface and the endless night.
civilitty 8y ago
Extreme weather with atmospheric acidification that slowly eats away at everything on the surface like a polishing a rock. It would take hundreds of thousands or millions of years but it's plausible as the sun slowly expands, which causes tidal stresses and significantly increases surface temperatures making the landscape a lot more dynamic.
maxerickson 8y ago
Someone probably deployed a plot device.

pavel_lishin 8y ago

That sounds fascinating; try https://old.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/ https://old.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/

maxerickson 8y ago

Maybe Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. It's a good book to check off the list but it is stylistically tedious.

johnchristopher 8y ago
I'm adding it to the list, thanks.
danieltillett 8y ago
I always thought the style was part of the intention to express the enormous amount of time described. When you get to the end of the book you are left with the feeling like you have lived a billion years :)

Pete_D 8y ago

John Michael Greer - The Next Ten Billion Years https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-billion-years/ https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-b...

johnchristopher 8y ago
Thank you, that's the one :).

johnchristopher 8y ago

Now, here's the interesting part. I was sure I first read that story when it was first submitted on HN. Sure enough here it is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860839, I even put out a comment in a discussion. The funny thing now is that someone mentioned the very wikipedia article `Timeline of the far future` in that short story submission. Ah, patterns.

speeq 8y ago
I came across this article by looking up Neptune and going down a wikipedia rabbit hole after seeing another submission that's currently on the front page: `Supersharp Images from New VLT Adaptive Optics` https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17556955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17556955

drosna 8y ago

Sounds like The Time Machine by H. G. Wells