Semi Sapient Slave species

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2008-09-10 02:30am

This thread was based of a concept i toyed about with in Steller Dominions, but i recently thought of it in a more complicating setting on social evolution. Forgive me if this is more of a OSF thing, but this is very much sociological thing.

To lay out the concept, we shall look at an alternate version of Earth where Hominid Evolution took a slightly diferent route. Here, pockets of non H. Sapiens Hominids survived in a few areas in Europe after ice ages ended while Homo Sapiens' went along the same technological development path as they did before, developing agriculture and civilization. Eventually, populations of H. Sapiens manages to capture a few children of these Hominids and trains them to be subservient. Although not as bright as H. Sapiens, they can understand fairly complex vocal commands and do fairly complex tasks under supervision. They eventually start breeding them to produce more offspring. Effectively giving human society a class of domesticated chattel for bulk labour.

How would societies evolve with semi-sapient livestock slaves at there disposal?

Zor

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2008-09-10 04:21am

Probably similar to how they evolved last time; all this means is there's an intermediary between human slaves and livestock. If they breed enough, the African slave trade may never take off unless it has some monetary advantage, but I would imagine Roman slavery would still exist due to its differences (allowing slaves to go free after a certain time, etc). When Darwin comes around, if their slavery isn't abolished already, I would expect it to be shortly afterwards.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2008-09-10 07:42am

Their presence would be a major issue in politics for, like...ever. Abolishing their enslaved status will change little: they will still be the permanent underclass, by virtue of their less developed brains. Of course, they're not exactly cows, so we can't just say "Well, we'll keep them enslaved forever for their own good, then!"

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2008-09-10 08:49am

Of course, we could always sterilize them and let them die out like they probably would have if they hadn't been enslaved in the first place.

Yes, harsh, I know.

Question; How biologically compatable are they with us? Can we cross-breed?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-09-10 09:03am

So, basically, bipedal primates who perform a similar function to dogs, but with vastly increased food and space requirements, and without being anywhere near as cuddly. I'm not seeing the benefit here: they're not intelligent enough for complex human-like tasks, and dogs perform very well in their roles as human helpers and pets already.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2008-09-10 09:28am

I would think that they would fall out of favor entirely with the Industrial Revolution. If all they're used for is manual labor, and they're incapable of learning much beyond that, they're going to be shoved out by technology. Unlike humans, who are, by and large, capable of being taught skilled labor techniques that allow them to remain useful in an industrial society, these hominids are...what? Useless? Outdated? I mean, do you just release them back into the wild? Set up reservations for them?

This, of course, assumes they're too stupid to be taught how to work on an assembly line. If they are indeed able to work in factories, they could continue to find use in an industrial society. The dilemma then, would be how to treat them. Do you pay them less than humans doing the same job? Are they even numerate enough to understand and use money?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-09-10 09:31am

If they're smart enough to work in a factory, they're smart enough to read. That makes them equivalent to low-IQ humans.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2008-09-10 02:32pm

Solauren wrote:Question; How biologically compatable are they with us? Can we cross-breed?

Speciated, You can get mules, but nothing more.

Zor

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2008-09-10 03:02pm

thats quite a lot of speciation-Mules have very screwed up chromosomes and can't pair them off properly at all. Humans and Chimps are probably closer than horses and donkeys.

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2008-09-11 08:30am

I think such a humanity would be very different then what we have now. There will no clear-cut anchient age, medieval age and industrial age. We will see something new and different, because such a species would be very much different.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-09-21 04:00am

Here's one series of books already written about this possibility.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2008-09-21 09:06am

Darth Wong wrote:So, basically, bipedal primates who perform a similar function to dogs, but with vastly increased food and space requirements, and without being anywhere near as cuddly. I'm not seeing the benefit here: they're not intelligent enough for complex human-like tasks, and dogs perform very well in their roles as human helpers and pets already.

The big advantage would be hands.

For example, Capuchin monkeys have been trained as helper animals for quadreplegics - since they have hands they are capable of performing grooming actions such as brushing the person's hair, and even getting a drink or sandwich out of a refrigerator for the person. Dogs aren't quite that adept.

No doubt, hominid slaves could perform some tasks dogs can't. In pre-industrial societies they would probably be set to boring, repetitive tasks. In post-industrial societies a lot would depend on their intelligence. Could they handle a job scrubbing toilets or picking fruit? Would some people keep them as pets? Would PETA object to them being trained to perform in circuses?

The problem with a hominid slave/servant is that, like all primates (including humans), as adults they can be irritable, foul-tempered, poo-flinging animals and they're intelligent enough to get into trouble.

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2008-09-21 04:00pm

There is also the fact that such a species wouldn't act as robots: they would act more like children or primitives appropriate to their intellect.

For one thing, it is quite likely their monotomy tolorance would be lower then that of humans, making them useless for certain types of manual labour or almost all. Even if they don't act like Broomstick pointed out, they will likely be as useful as child workers and likely with more problems.

Kanastrous · Post by **Kanastrous** » 2008-09-21 08:01pm

If we're breeding them as teachable, semi-intelligent servants, it seems likely that breeders will select for intelligence and educability in order to improve their product lines.

Eventually we'll see a servitor-species...homo vasallus, maybe...which has effectively been handed all the low-end labor obligations supporting the larger society. Sooner or later a breeder will succeed too well in improving the stock, and a scattered population will arise capable of reasoning their way to a slave revolt.

Internal and external pressures including the low-grade civil war will lead to a breakdown in internal and international relations and runaway events triggering a nuclear war. The few surviving humans will become a grotesquely mutated population surviving in the sunken remnants of major cities, or nomadic, pre-neolithic bands of wandering scavengers.

The ex-slave hominids become the dominant technological species, and develop a policy of near-religious-warfare against the remaining human beings. Existentially threatened by emerging archaeological evidence supporting Homo Sapiens' past supremacy, the hominids mount an attack against the subterranean mutants, during which a remaining enhanced-radiation warhead is detonated, sterilizing the planet and propelling three surviving hominids back to the year 1973 to start the sequence of events all over again.