I'd like to get your opinions on how a rodent like community (being very resilient, and scroungy) would function, given a margin of sentience is afforded to them. My assumptions are that they'd congregate around a more dominant entity and pick for left overs, acting like a devote scavenger community; giving praise to their host.
Check out the mouse utopia experiments by a Dr Calhoun - he offered rodents a perfect society without external threats, limitless food and enough space to support a huge population to see how it would affect their behaviour. If nothing else it provides an insight to what happens when a scientists prods around with basic instincts. (Spoiler - it doesn't end well, the mice saw extreme societal breakdown and the colony went extinct) It was often used by Malthusians as a portent for humanity's doom (nonsense - humanity is much more functional and rational now than it has ever been in the past) and Calhoun coined a term called 'Behavioral sink' to describe this break down in behaviour. Later on, he added stimuli to the mice to see it would offer the colonies a more positive outcome.. The results were significant, though largely forgotten because people love to be negative..
I agree, Universe 25 was an utter disaster. I think it's ,in part to the fact that they lack the cognitive ability displayed in humans to cooperate, communicate and coexist in great numbers. Most of my research is conducted from Yuval Noah's Sapiens, and how he theorized that the archaic human's rise to dominance was facilitated by their ability to collaborate in large number, (well that and having opposable thumbs for tool crafting) Conclusively, the gist of my story is, "what if humanity progressed without these historic conventions; In favor of more versatile toolkit". On the surface they'd display human characteristics, but as time elapses, they'd too descend the behavioral sink. I also wanted to juxtapose this with a myriad of other human classes, such as: A community sectioned off from external influences; and a community focused on hyper-efficient hunting and gathering methods (Elite nomads if you may).
How does this relate back to rodents? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow there. And what do you mean by versatile toolkit? As for the other human societies, there are so many factors. There are horror stories about Aboriginal customs in Australia, and the north Sentinelese are about as perfect an example you can get of aggressive islanders insulated from modernity.
Well... i used the term Rodent cause it h Well... I used the term "rodent" because it felt the most appealing, but what I really meant was pests. Then I wanted to graft characteristic like: fast reproduction rates, off-set by limited lifespans onto the human subset in question (as to the question pertaining to their "versatile toolkit") This story, as I mentioned earlier, is a hypothetical re-telling of human progression under a different yet familiar lens. the main take-away is, what would the world look like if Homo-Sapiens weren't the dominant species. Could these Alternate species (human) fill the void. So what I'm ultimately looking for from the community is suggestions as to, what type of culture these offshoots would have (based on a day to day basis). Would they be devote worshippers, worshipping their benevolent hosts; or more savage like the scavengers they were inspired by. Or anything else, I'm open to ideas.
I think these are all questions for you to explore and to be as creative as you can. It kind of makes me think of Pierre Boule did with Monkey Planet/Planet of the Apes, which he used as an allegory for class struggle - commenting on a society that was tiered into orangutan politicians, gorilla police, scientist chimps, etc, so perhaps the rodent world would adapt in a similar way to take advantage of certain traits. If we go back to using rats for simplicity's sake, Bill Bryson had some interesting information to impart on rats in his 'At Home' book. Their intelligence and ability to co-operate is quite remarkable (Gansevoort Poultry Market), though like you have said, their short lifespan and nature would also have an impact on how their society would be structured. Consider Rattus Rattus (roof rats) versus Norway rats, and how they might be divided in society - roof rats like to be up high , in attics and trees, while Norway rats can be found in burrows and sewers. They show almost no fear in domestic environments and are even ballsier in the presence of infants and the elderly, which is also quite frightening.
I'm super happy to see you make that inference; I definitely was going for the planet of the apes aesthetic, just with a little more nuance. I'll incorporate some of your ideas, albeit with a greater emphasis on vermin as a whole. I just feel like I have to adhere to my setting.
