The Journal of Mechanics and Biology

Take a moment to consider a level one death world, take a moment to wonder what it would take to survive and adapt on a planet where literally everything is out to kill you. Imagine doing all of that without carapace, infrared, or particularly impressive short distance running speed. Yet the humans did it. They did it and then took their survival to an extreme. How is it that, relative to other predators, such a weak, slow, and helpless species survived on such a death world. * I take a moment here to point out that this is only a comparison of humans to their own planetary species well aware that they are considered a level A-1 predictor in the rest of the galaxy.

To answer this question, I draw your attention to he human brain. It is a fascinating organ of feedback loops complexities and redundant systems. Not to mention the human brain loves patterns. Not to say that there are other species who aren't just as adept at noticing patters, however the difference remains that humans brain's delight in predicting patterns within their environment. While a Glarian may be able to see a pattern faster than a human, the prediction power of the human brain on short notice is absolutely astonishing.

Anyone who has ever attempted to fight a human knows this. Humans are almost impossible to hit as they analyze and predict on the fly in a way that other species cannot. As it turns out this may have been the key to their survival.

The ability to predict future behavior from past and present stimuli is common among higher sentient species, however a human is a fast predictor on the fly. A human and another species may come to the same conclusion though it may take their counterpart seconds or minutes to do what a human can do almost unconsciously and immediately.

The human brain loves patterns and predictions so much, that certain patterns can even elicit a dopamine response in the human brain giving rise to feelings of pleasure. Clearly an evolutionary advantage to enjoy patterns and predicting them.

Krill had only been aboard the human ship for about a week when he first heard the noise. It was distant and throbbed on the air with a certain alarming regularity. First, he thought it might be an alarm of some sort, but the rise and fall of the pulses made him think twice. The noise wasn't a radio frequency which he could pick up, but the universal translator he wore continuously interpreted the sounds on the air allowing him to hear just like the humans did, or at least similarly to how they did. He found this ability to be critical on a ship where atmospheric vibration was a large part of human culture.

He stood up from where he sat and wandered his way down the hall listening to the sound and it's throbbing pulse. As it turned out the human auditory system processed sound in similar ways to how he processed radio transmission, in fact, humans often used the radio to send messages with transduction equipment to interpret the signals. In a similar way, that is what his translator did for him, turning sounds into appropriate frequency radio signals.

These signals were getting stronger as he made his way upwards and onto the bridge. The noise was close now, and he had to brace himself as he opened the door walking in to find the group of humans lounging around at their stations in various states of relaxation.

But it wasn't the humans that caught his attention, but the pulsing beat that swelled up around him throbbing in his chest and throughout all six limbs. The experience was so exquisitely intoxicating that he staggered to the side with a wave of sudden overwhelming emotion.

The beat pulsed inside him with impossible regularity and complexity. So complex was the pattern that he could hardly keep up and his cortical systems struggled to keep all of him functioning as he listened.

Somewhere, someone must have noticed him, and the music was abruptly discontinued.

He became vaguely aware of bodies around him as he finally gained control of his senses.

Captain Vir was the first person he saw standing above him with a concerned look on his face.

"Uh, KRill? You alright."

He couldn't answer for a long moment before shaking his head one last time to clear his mind, "I... wow.... why did you stop. That was the most.... amazing thing I have ever heard."

The captain sat back on his heels and the humans looked on in perplexity, "Have you.... Never heard music before?" The captain wondered

Krill shook his head, "No, I have but.... never.... like that.... so many patterns.... how do you keep up."

The captain scratched the back of his head in confusion, "I uh.... well it's not really all that big of a deal...."

Krill's eyes widened in shock and he shook his head, "Not a big deal..... Human.... it takes years an an advanced mathematical degree to make sounds like that. The ability to create a beat with that regularity requires computerized algorithms or the ability to do mathematics in microseconds. I would have to count every beat and then some if I wished to come close to what you just did." He shook his head in amazement, "And adding EXTRA sounds on top of that which match the beats is.... well its nigh on impossible without a computer do do it, and to make it sound good when all is said and done...." He trailed off in confusion.

Of course there was music on his planet, but it was very difficult to make, and even harder to make sound good. Generally speaking only two sounds were used in any really good piece of music, and they generally had to follow the same beat line, but the humans.... well what they did was astonishing.

As far as he understood from that once piece, it had a general background beat with very deep frequencies which would be low and deep, it then there was higher frequencies on top of that and at a faster beat, which was at almost exactly twice the speed of first.

The captain gave a grin as a look of understanding spread over his face, "You mean you can't feel that?"

"Feel what?" Krill asked in confusion

"The beat?" He asked

Krill shook his head, "You don't feel a beat."

That comet created an immediate uproar in the humans who disagreed with his analysis vehemently.

The captain shook his head in amazement. Yes you can, its like... a pulsing, and you just.... well you just KNOW something needs to be there. Makes you want to tap your foot, bounce your knee, or start dancing."

Krill stared at the human who must have gone completely daft, "You FEEL sound."

The captain frowned, "No... not exactly, its just a feeling. It builds up in your body, and its hard to keep yourself still."

Krill had his head another shake, "It's impossible."

The human gave a frown of annoyance and stood up, "You know what then.... bet you I can make a beat right now, and I bet everyone else in this room can follow with me."

Krill disagreed, "To coordinate over twenty crew members is impossible."

"Yeah, you bet, bet I can do that and get a background beat to go with it too. Bet we could make up a song right now if we really tried."

"I would very much like to see you do that, human."

The man gave a grin, "You know what, I'd turn this into a bet, but winning will be to easy."

Krill very much doubted the human's statement, but he let the man think what he would and watched him as he returned to the center of the room. All the humans had taken to their feet interested in what was about to happen.

The captain stood thinking for a moment, and Krill watched sure that he would give up any second, but then

The captain stomped his foot on the metal deck.

Thud...Thud-Clap (his hands struck each other with a loud sudden pulse. That sure didn't sound like a beat to him.

But then

Thud...thud-clap.... thud....thud-clap-clap... thud... thud-clap....

Krill blinked in shock, as slowly, one by one all the other humans joined mimicking the beat the captain had created out of thin air. But it wasn't just a simple beat, it was a cycle of slow to fast, and as far as krill could tell it was almost the same every time.

Behind him someone started knocking their hand against a control panel every so often in a completely different beat that both contrasted and matched the first.

With a hand, the captain motioned to the first lieutenant who then placed his hands over his mouth and began to weave another cycle of beats through the first two.. He wasn't using any language that Krill could identify. Krill had never heard a human voice box used in that way before.

"Alright, someone wanna give me some lyrics." The captain called somehow still maintaining the complex under-beat as he spoke to the crew. Krill couldn't understand it. He could hardly follow the beat as it was much less talk to anyone while doing it.

Somewhere in the back a noise rose up to weave through the three beats around. HIs translator caught a few words, but the sound was so different... so unexpected that he couldn't have comprehended it if he tried. The human was.... doing something. Something that opened her throat and allowed the air to rush through in controlled bursts between breaths. It was like speaking but drawn out to send vibrations through the air. A few of the humans whooped their approval joining to add their voices to the first.

Halfway through another crew member added his voice. Krill could hear it this time, but the human was speaking almost to quickly for the translator to comprehend, and he was pacing it WITH the beat. He was speaking with a rhythm.

Impossibly all twenty humans on the bridge crew had joined in. Some used their voices some their hands some their feet, and more than one mixed them in combination.

He had never seen anything like it.

He would later learn about the human brain's enjoyment of predictable patterns. Their brain enjoyed patterns and predictions so much that a musical beat was almost second nature to a human. This enjoyment was so profound that the humans received an almost intoxicated reaction to the complex auditory patterns.

Not only that, but the humans could increase their factual memory tenfold by creating a song that incorporated the information. Ask a human and they find it easier to recall the lyrics to their favorite song than it is to recall mathematical equations. That is until you add a rhythm to a mathematical equation and then the human might end up with the equation stuck in their head on repeat as their brain replays the beat over and over.

Want a human to remember something.... make a song about it.

If human musicians had been popular on their home world, it was multiplied tenfold once their music reached the galaxy/ They were actually beginning to have a problem with humans retiring and buying the odd moon here and there.