Discovering the Wheel, Fire and Religion simultaneously

Here’s a randomly random anecdote to start the week: In the classic PC game Star Control II (aka The Ur-Quan Masters), there’s an alien alliance known as the Zoq-Fot-Pik, and after talking to them you can find out how their culture got jump-started by a single event.

The Zoq-Fot-Pik

Basically, a Zoq, a Fot and a Pik were walking up a steep path, when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. The lightning carved a strange disc with a hole in the middle, and the disc started rolling down the hill towards the three terrified aliens. Some dry grass was caught on its hole, and since the disc was still really hot from the lightning the grass caught on fire.

When the rock finally got to the Zoq, the Fot, and the Pik they simultaneously discovered the Wheel, Fire, and Religion, thus catapulting them on the road to progress.

How did a flaming wheel give birth to religion? Well, the flaming wheel actually hit and killed the Zoq.

The Fot and the Pik felt so bad (they really liked that Zoq!) that they decided the Zoq hadn’t really died when the wheel flattened him… He had just gone to “a better place.” Presumably one without lethal flaming wheels.