newsonaut

Turning inner space into outer space

October 9, 2020

Planet of the human-eaters

In this story idea, an Earth astronaut travels to a planet where there is a highly evolved super-smart species that dominates. There are also humans, who are about as smart as we are, but their role is more akin to our animals, because they are nowhere near as smart as the dominant species.

As it turns out, humans are also considered to be a delicious delicacy, and much desired by the dominant species. However, because they also have a highly evolved sense of morality, they have devised a compromise that allows them to eat humans without killing them.

Humans volunteer to give up, for a handsome price, an arm or a leg, and have it replaced with a bionic prosthesis that is more powerful and versatile than a normal arm or leg.

Our human astronaut takes a dim view of this, and tries to persuade the humans that it’s terrible to allow themselves to be taken advantage of this way.

But the humans are quite happy with the arrangement. They love the extra money, and they love the high-tech replacement limbs.

The astronaut can’t leave well enough alone, so he keeps stirring up trouble — trying to convince the humans to rise up and revolt.

The dominant species gets wind of this, and sends a representative to meet the astronaut. The rep notes that while humans do get a lot of money for a limb, it is nothing compared with the riches for giving up a brain. Not only that but the brain replacement makes you super smart — almost as smart as the dominant species.

The representative, along with being super smart, is also super persuasive and convinces the astronaut to give up his brain. After waking up from his operation, the astronaut can’t believe how smart he is.

And he also can’t believe he ever thought there was anything wrong with the planet’s human-eating arrangement.