I'm officially exhausted. Physically, not mentally. I just need a day when I'm not mending the power system or typing commands at the remote sensors. I need a day off.
I admit that I've been drinking melange punch. For those who didn't grow up in a dorm, melange punch is similar to melange in that it's based on human recyc but has a somewhat different formula that includes ethanol. It doesn't take a lot of power to make, but it has the power to make the world a better place. Especially if that world is a different planet. It's in the log and the support staff approved it -- just thought I should mention it. Especially since I've had a lot tonight.
In any case, what really has been weighing on my mind is the matter of the naming of the DAF. DAF is a miserable term to have to use day after day. It betrays human chauvinism just in the term itself. Break it apart: Dominant Animal Form. Every word a selfish anthem to humans.
Start with "form". What could be wrong with "form"? Doesn't everything have a "form"? No. It really refers to multicellular creatures, big ones. We know full well that microbes can reshape the face of a planet -- ask the researchers that landed on A2P-451. Bacteria do not need giant bodies made of themselves, they are a formidable force for organization without that. We lucked out by overpowering them early, it turns out.
"Animal" is even worse. The whole concept reeks of ambulatory-centrism, and that's not even considering the planets where the very concept of "plant" and "animal" make no sense. Glide 18E, for example. Looking at the ecosystem objectively, is the thing that moves around and eats other things really higher or better then the things that absorbs sunlight and avoids being eaten? Why are we looking at animals and ignoring plants -- because we're animals, that's why.
But "domindant" is the worst. What does it mean to be a "dominant" life form on a planet? On Luna and Mars human beings donimate becase they are responsible for all the other life on the planet. That's just a fact of history. But on Earth? Do humans really dominate? It's not so certain. Termites might make a cerdible claim for dominance, as might pine trees if we were to acknowledge non-animal forms. But that would involve an objective -- and at this point -- entirely hypothetical contest.
But for now we know the "Dominant Animal Form" of Sigma 957. And soon I will name them. I promise. And a promise is something that alone among the life forms on this planet, I -- as a human -- can do.
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