Lobsters do not die of old age and don’t stop growing. They die when they become too big to moult properly. So we’re gonna take a lobster and help it moult over generations, and create a Leviathan god -- Anon Guest
Humans don't take theories at face value. They like to prove things in practice. They like to answer questions with, "We tried it and..." This could be either seen as a flaw or a benefit. It generally comes out as both at once. Take the Immortal Lobster Project. ...please.
The theory that lobsters are technically immortal was one that Humanity accepted for years on Earth. There was no actual way to test that for that length of time. Then someone actually put thought into how to do so. It involved a big tank, a team of scientists dedicated to monitoring such a thing for generations on end, and increasingly elaborate devices to assist in the moulting.
Followed closely by increasingly enormous tanks for the experimental lobster. From desk size to room size to pool size to house size to an entire bay. When it got to the point of submarine stations and underwater machinery, there was significant murmuring to cease the experiment. After all, hadn't they proved the point?
Not yet, they said. The lobster had yet to actually die of old age. Until it did, they said, there would not be proof that lobsters are actually immortal. Others argued that there weren't the resources to continue the Lobsterzilla Experiment. or at least, not enough resources that others were comfortable in sharing.
So the scientists did the only rational thing. They grouped together their families, their project data, the lobster and it's enormous enclosure, and made a colony world to continue the project without anyone else's interference. When it comes to long term planning, very little beats a team of scientist that have been working on a factual answer for generations already, and will continue to work on it for generations yet. They'd spent two centuries on this and they weren't going to quit just because the people with the purse strings had had enough.
Earth was glad to see them go. Well. The parts of Earth that were tired of sinking time, effort, and huge amounts of money into a project with no end in sight. Some significant portions of the greater public were interested in learning if lobsters really did have a lifespan if they weren't impeded by their exoskeletons.
Some were welcome to join Lobsterworld. Some could not go, and were left to face disappointment.
That was the last Earth heard of them for the better part of six hundred years. At the other end of the deep time one-way wormhole, the people of what would be named Carapace worked for even longer on the answer. Many, many times longer.
The United Fellowship of Terran Planets re-unification vessel Investigator found Carapace as a form of scientific theocracy. There was no longer a tank big enough to hold the beast they worshipped, which now survived thanks to a constant stream of ocean water over its body and gills. Its fed by the labor of its human worshippers, in a constant stream of farmed fish, an industry that has taken over all the ocean waters on the planet.
The houses, vehicles, and most constructions are made from the discarded shells of the eternal lobster. On Shedding Day, those not dedicated to helping the lobster shed celebrate by having meals of lesser lobsters and singing the hymn, We'll Know When We Know. Some exchange gifts. Many set off fireworks because Humanity will use any excuse to blow things up in a pretty way.
Lobsterzilla, or Lobsty McLobsterface, or Lobby for short, is two thousand years old, and still going strong.
They don't have the answer, yet. Nobody knows what will happen when they finally get one. Nobody knows if they will ever get one.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / IgorKovalchuk]
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