(note to friends: I meant to post this way earlier but hadn’t had time to edit it down. That’s why it refers to events way past. But the point is still fresh)

As is my fashion, I read a book on the plane. I read Time Machine on the way to Japan and King Hrolf Kraki’s saga on the way back. I have nothing to say about the latter except it would make an awesome series of movies with endless sequels and that modern literature lacks the sheer succinctness of poets of old. Of the Time Machine, well, what can I say, it was awesome, as expected. I also wonder why I didn’t read it earlier. It’s exactly the kind of book I would have read as a teenager, though I was much more into Asimov and Clark back then.

What made H.G. Wells such an awesome sci-fi writer (aside from those qualities that made him just plain old a good writer) was his ability to suspend disbelief by bringing heavy doses of real science into his stories while he makes his political commentary. My disbelief is not so easily suspended (one reason I seldom enjoy movies), so of course the SciFi I like is hard sci-fi, though I can appreciate the preposterous if it is at least internally consistent (e.g., if the way magic works makes sense and the world is as it would be were there magic; Lovecraft did this better than anyone else). His science isn’t the point of the novel. It isn’t to warn of an eventuality, but to make a separate point. It’s the good (for the time) science that draws you into the tale.

Even if you’ve never read Time Machine, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about what the time traveler finds in the future – mankind split into two separate species, one descended from the upper classes and one from the lower classes, the Eloi and the Morlocks, respectively. Aspects of the old relationship persist with the Morlocks creating everything and maintaining infrastructure for the Eloi, but with a twist – the Eloi are food for the Morlocks. The relationship has become something like cattle raised for slaughter. Both species have lost strength (and size) and intelligence compared to mankind now, but the Eloi much more so.

Thinking like a biologist [in training], the main thing that was nagging at me after reading the book was the explanation for why the Morlocks still clothe the Eloi. It was brushed off as vestigial behavior. That could be the case, but if it is so, it would have to be on its way out as it is expensive (what isn’t? Nature is a Miser) and will go away rather quickly in evolutionary time with the selective pressures for relaxed. But that’s not satisfying for me, since this makes a big part of the plot vestigial. The whole story is resting on a tail bone.

One explanation could be simply cultural. The Morlocks and the Eloi are at least smart enough to have language, and the Morlocks are smart enough to maintain infrastructure. Any instincts aside, Morlocks will continue the practice of clothing the Eloi as long as not doing so will make the Eloi lose any incentive to breed and be complacent. There can always be break-downs in Morlock society, though, as more and more Morlocks selfishly shirk their duties to Morlock-kind for personal gain. Given that global thinking evades their kind, one can be pretty sure it will happen, provided their care of the Eloi is a cultural practice they understand. It basically goes to game theory with all the players having marginal intelligence.

Alternatively, if the behavior is strictly instinctual (like the book implies), we are getting into evolutionary stable strategies. If it benefits an individual Morlock to shirk its Eloi-clothing responsibilities, there will be that pressure on being a selfish bastard who leaves the Eloi in their birthday suits, even if it threatens the survival of the species. There could be kin selection where such behavior is selected since it benefits others who carry the gene, but if there are variants where a group of Morlocks steal Eloi from rival bands (there’s no talk of tribes of Morlocks in the book, but given primate behavior, it’s a certainty), that would be selected for. If it is the case that being selfish always pays and there is no equilibrium where being more selfish is to one’s detriment (unlikely, since in primate culture, there’s social reciprocity), then individuals will strive for personal gain until the last Morlock is starving from uncared for Eloi failing to mate or running away when it’s light out.

Perhaps it is the fate of the Morlocks to go extinct. Indeed, in a section that the publisher had Wells add to the book (and he disagreed and won in the end) that showed the next stage in human evolution, there were no Morlocks in sight, but some small hopping animals descended from Eloi (The Grey Man). Perhaps the time traveler happened upon a collapse? Hmmm…