The Way of Flesh

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I walked up to the podium and blinked in the bright lights. The audience in front of me seemed as far away as the larger audience on the thousand inhabited worlds in our net.

I cleared my throat and began.

“One of the central mysteries that yet eludes our understanding is the sudden dissipation of seemingly robust civilizations. On too many planets we find what looks like a thriving culture—with spires as high and as intricate as those on our own worlds—abandoned with barely a trace of the intelligent life that built them. It’s almost as if everyone went home for lunch and never returned.

“Our usual assumption in such cases is disease or some other physical culprit—a dramatic change in climate, for instance, that might have rendered agriculture and aquaculture unproductive.

“But recent evidence uncovered by my colleagues and me on a distant planet have suggested another cause.

“This was a planet which had achieved some global cooperation after centuries of bitter warfare. Its scientists were on the way to comprehending and manipulating reality on a subatomic level. Rearrangement of DNA in natural living patterns was just beginning to be used to literally improve the quality of organic life. Artificial intelligence had yet to be implemented, but visionaries were well aware of its benefits. Most sadly of all, this species had made the first groping efforts to propel itself beyond the confines of its planet.

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