SINGH: Axum 2

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Field notes, Udal Singh.

The Karakorum ruins imply a civilization that developed to the same level as pre-Expansion Earth. They had electrical power, industrial metals, digital computers, orbital spaceflight, the whole suite. But they arrived to the same place along a different path.

They got electricity FIRST. I think they — hang on a minute, I’ve got to hide — I think the Axum themselves can sense electricity. Like sharks. And they figured out, hey, these long bacterial fibers — these things carry an electrical current. Then some clever Axum wrapped those fibers up into a generator. And once you’ve got a generator you can make your own electricity and start pulling metal from the seawater. Farming the sea to make tools. All without one spark of fire.

Imagine it. Undersea cities as old as Troy or Harappa, but with telegraph lines and electric lighting. Thousands of years before the first flame. To us, electricity means modernity. To the Axum…it’s as old as bronze.