To Dr. R. J. F. (Jan) Smith, who left us too soon.

Dr. Smith was my grad studies supervisor, a dear man with a neat dark beard and twinkly eyes. He introduced me to fish pheromones, as well as – 40C winters, gumbo (the mud), and gliding over the prairies, and it was in Jan’s basement lab at the University of Saskatchewan that the question of the Clan came to me.

I was examining the cost of growing features of use solely for reproductive success. Deer annually regrow antlers to fight for and attract mates, consuming nutrients and energy. Similarly, my study subjects, male fathead minnows, grow mucous disks on their heads to prepare nests and change their behavior in ways that make them more vulnerable to predators. Evolution drives such adaptations, but not beyond those costs. Selection pressure swings back to sensible.

When wouldn’t it? I wondered, late one night.

What if an intelligent species realized a trait—of use originally for reproductive success—offered future generations a different advantage? What cost would they be willing to endure as a society, as individuals, to enhance that trait?

And when they went too far, when selection pressure swung back as it inevitably would—what then?

I remember staring at my busy minnows, thinking surely we’d know better.

There began the story of the Clan and Sira di Sarc.

Thank you, Jan, for this and so very much more.