Ants That (Probably) Do Not Exist

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

That old psudoscience story about a vast vanished ancient civilization that lived on early earth and left little evidence that they existed.

But they were ants. They live 200 million years ago and left for space and we find out about them when they return in their space habitats to check on the old home planet and see how things are going.

[grumpydad@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird Honestly, at this point, I'm hesitant to make a suggestion because I'm afraid you'll drag up a real-world example and trigger my anxieties...

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@grumpydad

... don't be shy ... go on ...

[grumpydad@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird Nooooo.....

[ptoothfish@mastodon.nz]

@futurebird one of cixin liu short stories is this with dinosaurs and when they come back they eat us and keep us as pets

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird I once ran a short-lived TTRPG campaign set in the Cretaceous, where the players were members of a sapient dinosaur species that had learned to make tools of wood, stone and obsidian - and bits of other dinosaurs. I based them on Troodon (because 1. those had unusually large brains for dinosaurs, and 2. they were omnivorous). Unfortunately, the setting was hard for me (at the time at least) to come up with good stories for.

I figured that an undiscovered dinosaur culture could make sense if they never made it to metalworking, and never reached a very large population.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@svavar

Since all ants can walk they are all ped ants I guess. Little know it alls.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@datarama

How much harder would tools and technology be for us to recognize if they were made on an ant-size scale?

No one would look at a tiny flake of flint and think "yes something intelligent worked that into a point"

Also ants would use a lot of bio-tech. Their spaceships would be based on massive pupae.

[phosphenes@mastodon.social]

@futurebird

In the book After Man, they portray future ants who build boat-like colonies that advance out into lakes.

This inspired me to world-build ants who make submarine hives which can sink or float like a nautilus by changing the internal pressure of their home.

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird Things that size would be ground to dust 200 million years later.