The lessons of history

If we want to write about an advanced, intelligent species the only role model we have at present is our own.  Human beings are a deeply flawed species with a turbulent and violent past, and digging into our history provides us with the basis of many stories.

Most writers think of mining our social history and culture for stores, but I think that looking at how we've changed and affected the natural world, and how it in turn has changed our history, is a rich source of ideas.

The genetic modification of wild wheat and rice has provided the food supplies that have allowed our population to boom.  An unscrupulous scientist adding chemicals to a staple food like this might well have the basis for a form of mind control. 

The co-evolution of species with us has given us domesticated dogs, horses, cattle, and sheep.  Domesticated cattle and sheep allowed us to become sedentary farmers.  We lost our nomadic roots and became settled in one place.  And eventually gathered together in vast cities across the globe.

But when we domesticated wheat and rice we narrowed down the hundreds of wild species into a few super-producing strains.  The problem with monocultures is that, if they become susceptible to disease, you have a lot of people starving very quickly.  Perhaps the heroine of an SF story might be the keeper of the Millenium Seed Bank, defending the precious seeds from raiders and culturing new species that save the planet from starvation.

Or if you want to control a species, how about getting it addicted to sugar?  Consuming high levels of sugar decreases dopamine in the brain.  And dopamine is linked to the ability to learn.  Dumb them down with sugar, then conquer them.

Or you might also write about what happens when the billions of cattle we have today contribute so much to greenhouse gases that we have to slaughter them all.

This just scratches the surface of ideas from human history.  Looking at cultural and social history alongside corresponding ecological changes can provide us with an endless stream of situations for stories.