Maxwell Empire Scripted Book 2 Chapter 8
Grant asks
GRANT
Dennis, if you were a robot terraforming a planet like Maxwell 01 how many humans would you make in the beginning?
DENNIS
Well, Grant, it would depend on so many variables that it is impossible to say. The robots producing the plants and animals would need to be able to work it out for themselves.
GRANT
When it came to plants it would not matter how many you made just so long as there were enough of them as food for the animals.
DENNIS
The food plants would need to be varied though to give a balanced diet and protect from some possible diseases. Like men needing broccoli to avoid prostate cancer.
GRANT
One advantage of having completed Biology Stage 10E for sure.
DENNIS
The story about Captain Cook’s voyages and avoiding scurvy is another reason they would need to have grown the right plants for the humans.
GRANT
Growing a garden of beautiful flowers would not do the health of the humans much good; apart from their mental health anyway. So the robots must know what plants the animals need to have to eat.
DENNIS
Yes, there would not be any point throwing all types of seeds around without consideration of the needs of the new animals. That is apart from the plants producing oxygen of course.
GRANT
It must take years to get sufficient plants of the types you want. You have the DNA and you make cells of those plants using your algae but then you need to grow the seeds, collect more seeds, and keep repeating it all until you have enough seeds.
DENNIS
Now you are remembering what Biology Stage 10D included.
GRANT
Sorry, I am preaching to the converted so to speak.
DENNIS
The message saying they had got chickens and were about to start humans was hundreds of years after Maxwell 01 got there so it has been a lengthy process.
GRANT
That brings up the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg.
DENNIS
A new take on an old question. Because the stored DNA was used to change the algae cells to chicken cells it has to be that the chicken was produced first and then it laid eggs. As long as it was a hen of course.
GRANT
When the humans start eating solids the robots will have to feed them all the male chickens so the females are kept to make more chickens, and also eggs for the humans.
DENNIS
Bit sexist. But true.
GRANT
Your still not getting to tell me how many humans you think they have produced, Dennis.
DENNIS
Grant, is it relevant seeing there are so many variables or are you just worried you do not design enough different birthday cards.
GRANT
That is a thought. We don’t know their names. I can’t do cards at all. Whether there are ten or ten thousand they are going to get a bit upset to get a card for their third birthday saying NUMBER 56, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, or NUMBER 256, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Just as well I wasn’t thinking about birthday cards.
DENNIS
Still being a bit sexist. Do you think they would have equal numbers of boys and girls?
GRANT
Good question. If you want to make the most humans quicker you would have a few males and lots of females. Like having a herd of cows and one bull to service them all. I wonder what the robots were told.
DENNIS
Just as well Maxwell 01 gets to answer our questions after only an eight year wait. It will be nowhere near as satisfying for our great, great etcetera grandchildren when they want to know what has happened on the other planets.
GRANT
We could of course ask the robot programmers what the robots were told to do.
DENNIS
Read their notes anyway seeing it left over a thousand years ago.
GRANT
I had a think about my reason for growing the plants in domes. You know. You asked me why before.
DENNIS
For producing oxygen. Yes I remember.
GRANT
Well, a lot of the oxygen would come from the breakdown of the water they use for making hydrogen for use in the airships to disperse spores or seeds all over the planet. And the rest would come from the plants.
DENNIS
True. I should have thought that myself.
GRANT
The air outside the domes has no oxygen so is poisonous to the new animals that the robots make so all the animals are confined to the domes.
DENNIS
So I guess it will give the humans a chance chase a chook or to pick their own apple or strawberry or flower.
GRANT
If they are confined to going walkabout in the domes they need a big garden. Better than just dirt. And they will need a lot of domes with different designs.
DENNIS
Yes, they can’t go walkabout outside the domes so they need a lot of different ones so it gives them a more interesting home.
GRANT
It is going to be interesting to see just how many humans Maxwell 01 did make.
DENNIS
And what the sex ratio is.
GRANT
Just as well we are at the beginning of this adventure. It is going to be an interesting lifetime.
DENNIS
True. I can’t wait for the next message from Maxwell 01.
GRANT
Me too. I hope it is soon.
