West-west

Don't be taken aback by my hypothetical novel (yet) - I have not gone through the worst part of the story.

Although it sounds plain sailing to have an experiment on the evolution of some artificial life in another planet, reality is never that simple.

Yes, several groups that share the laboratory (the planet, I mean) may not agree with each other and do conflicting experiments at the same time. But that's relatively trivial a problem.

Imagine, what if the funding dries up (say, because of a financial tsunami) and the planet is forgotten ? As we all know, their lives must go on - and experimental beings on the planet continue to thrive and evolve and wonder who creates them.

Or, even more likely, a nuclear war wipes out all of us - leaving the lovely creatures on the other planet continue to wonder: Should they follow our commandments ?

Alas, my idea is not new. At most I add a scientific coating to what Friedrich Nietzsche suggested. Franz Kafka used the same idea in An Imperial Message, and more subtly - but also in a more elaborated manner - as Count West-west in The Castle.

PS. Nietzsche and Kafka actually formed their idea from philosophical considerations rather than scientific possibility; I shall not elaborate further.