No kidding. They experienced 24 hours every 1.03 seconds–a differential of 88,992, meaning that 88,992 years pass on the planet for every one year in the galaxy at large. That’s a staggering speed.
If you were to just map Earth’s development directly onto that timescale, then that species would have evolved into its modern form only about three (galactic) years prior, around the time that the Voyager crew was getting stranded on that deserted planet by Seska and the Kazon. They were discovering fire around the time of the Enterprise-D’s launch. Right now, today, if that planet existed, dogs would only just be evolving. Their geological time is almost perceptible to us.
So 20 galactic years would be the equivalent of about 1.8 million years on that planet. That’s about how long ago we developed the idea of language. Obviously, we’ve never seen a species that advanced. Assuming they survived, they likely wouldn’t even be the same anatomically as the peoples that the crew of Voyager met. We’d expect them to have developed concepts as transformative for their culture as language, fire, art, and clothing have been for ours.
It’s possible that they’d see humans in a similar way that we see Australopithecus. They would have advanced so far beyond humans that humanity’s scientific advancements over those 20 years would seem about as notable to them as our scientific advancements over the course of this morning seem to us. Voyager would almost certainly have receded beyond history, legend, or even myth. Some predictions of human advancement suggest that this species would have already surpassed the advancement needed to be a Type III on the Kardashev scale, but the fact that they are essentially trapped on that planet might direct their research inwards, in a similar way to how John Barrow modified the Kardashev scale. If they are a Type III-minus civilization after those twenty years, genetic modification is essentially child’s play. They’re probably hand-crafting exotic new materials and elements from scratch, and flirting with the idea of manipulating atoms directly.
If the species did not survive those twenty years, then the planet may be moving toward the rise of another sentient species altogether; assuming the biosphere remained intact.
I can see Janeway, herself at least, wanting to leave behind as little as possible after what happened, even with all the interference they’d already caused. But they had to have some kind of xenohistorian foaming at the mouth to observe that place lol
No kidding. They experienced 24 hours every 1.03 seconds–a differential of 88,992, meaning that 88,992 years pass on the planet for every one year in the galaxy at large. That’s a staggering speed.
If you were to just map Earth’s development directly onto that timescale, then that species would have evolved into its modern form only about three (galactic) years prior, around the time that the Voyager crew was getting stranded on that deserted planet by Seska and the Kazon. They were discovering fire around the time of the Enterprise-D’s launch. Right now, today, if that planet existed, dogs would only just be evolving. Their geological time is almost perceptible to us.
So 20 galactic years would be the equivalent of about 1.8 million years on that planet. That’s about how long ago we developed the idea of language. Obviously, we’ve never seen a species that advanced. Assuming they survived, they likely wouldn’t even be the same anatomically as the peoples that the crew of Voyager met. We’d expect them to have developed concepts as transformative for their culture as language, fire, art, and clothing have been for ours.
It’s possible that they’d see humans in a similar way that we see Australopithecus. They would have advanced so far beyond humans that humanity’s scientific advancements over those 20 years would seem about as notable to them as our scientific advancements over the course of this morning seem to us. Voyager would almost certainly have receded beyond history, legend, or even myth. Some predictions of human advancement suggest that this species would have already surpassed the advancement needed to be a Type III on the Kardashev scale, but the fact that they are essentially trapped on that planet might direct their research inwards, in a similar way to how John Barrow modified the Kardashev scale. If they are a Type III-minus civilization after those twenty years, genetic modification is essentially child’s play. They’re probably hand-crafting exotic new materials and elements from scratch, and flirting with the idea of manipulating atoms directly.
If the species did not survive those twenty years, then the planet may be moving toward the rise of another sentient species altogether; assuming the biosphere remained intact.
That’s super fun to think about.
Even with Voyager’s circumstances, surprised there weren’t some scientists that wanted to stay behind to watch the world evolve
Drop a probe in high orbit, something. I mean, Janeway’s a trained scientist.
I can see Janeway, herself at least, wanting to leave behind as little as possible after what happened, even with all the interference they’d already caused. But they had to have some kind of xenohistorian foaming at the mouth to observe that place lol