Initiating Translation of Water Echoes:

Humans are an irony.

It is strange to think that intelligent complex life developed on sol-three’s arid terrain rather than the available aquatic environment. Not only does water account for the larger portion of the planet’s surface area–especially when taking into account the available habitat in volume afforded by water’s viscosity–it also provides a more stable, supportive environment, is richer in nutrients, and more easily traversed. Aquatic species can exploit the virtual entirety of their environment while only avian species can do the same on land. Furthermore, liquids are necessary for the machinery of life and are more readily accumulated and organized for the functioning of organic systems in liquid; consequently it is not only strange that intelligent life would develop in the harsher and less habitable of the two environments, it is, statistically speaking, less likely.

Humans, who are dependent on water for survival, find themselves incapable of survival within it. Humans quickly shrivel and dry in sol-three’s hostile terrain without constantly replenishing the liquid water necessary to for their enclosed system to function. As a result, the majority of human settlements are found along the boundary between water and land. I am baffled to think that a species must live out of the primary resource required it’s survival. Living in water, if a species is dependent on it for survival, seems the much better of possible arrangements. The human species is a vivid reminder that evolution is not an inevitable upward climb, but a randomized series of mutations, and may be just as likely to fling a species into oblivion as propel it to greater biological success.

An aquatic environment and atmosphere aids and facilitates movement as well as weakening the most perpetual and present difficulty which dogs all terrestrial species: gravity. Terrestrial species must consistently expend more energy just to remain upright–much less mobile, whereas aquatic species can rely on their environment to mute the perpetual pull of gravity.Though the sol-three’s gravity is not so strong as some planets, the effect of the full force of gravity, uninhibited by an aiding atmosphere of viscous liquid, requires that terrestrial life forms are sturdy and sure. Each moment their muscles and bones resist the crushing pull of an object, compared to which their own mass is germlike. Relying exclusively on physical makeup seems wearisome and arduous when tasked with resisting the heavy pull of a planet. Perhaps this contributes to human’s short lifespan.

However,I cannot help but admire this stout species durability. If my species were to ever come into open conflict with humans–assuming  technological advantages were dismissed–the struggle would be quite one-sided in their favor.

Terrestrial life is generally more robust, adaptable, and more easily suited to interplanetary travel. Though it seems less likely that intelligent life would form on land, it may come as a great boon to the human species in the next phase of their development.

Perhaps it is in difficulty that the more durable lifeforms are created.

Translation Complete.