Who Are The Qu In 'All Tomorrows'?

Question

Spoilers welcome: what are the motivations and backstory of those creepy alien engineers in All Tomorrows? I found them unnerving.

37. 1ro C Román Serech, Karin Elizabeth · Answer

The Qu, in all their hyper-advanced, highly invasive glory, in ‘All Tomorrows’ genetically engineer the human descendants they’ve conquered into wildly divergent, often nightmarish new forms as punishment and/or experimentation. It’s a fantastic take on cosmic horror and forced evolution. While the Qu’s methods of altering the evolution of their conquered species may not be of interest to you, the magical bonds in ‘Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future’ could be of interest to you for a completely different reason. In that story, the fated mate connection between the two main characters is so profound that it literally reshapes two souls across time to form one single, unbreakable destiny.

Sophia · Answer

I can see why ‘All Tomorrows’ is a favorite of The Qu. They discovered humanity during one of the galaxy’s many space colonizations, and decided we’d make interesting art projects. A dozen or more species of bioengineered monstrosities sprang from their tortured imaginations, some of them retaining their human intelligence, while others became beasts of burden. A particularly nasty species of Qu had mated their creations with their tools, turning them into grotesque, permanent sculptures. There was also a species of Qu who had designed humanity as furniture. The Qu vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving behind only their inky blackprints on the evolution of humanity, lasting millions of years.

Clara · Answer

The Qu of 'All Tomorrows' are genetic artists. Most of the humans they sent to stranded colonies of humans long ago have been changed into beautiful or hideous species, usually the latter. Each transformation had a basis in a joke or lesson that the Qu artist wished to convey to the humans they were working with. For example, a culture of mariners was transformed into a species of great whales, threatening to destroy any human ships that entered their domain. A rural culture of farmers and herders was transformed into a herd of docile grazers. The Qu did not hate humans. Rather they treated them as if they were lumps of clay to be molded into whatever form the Qu artist had in mind. Their disappearance from the timeline is almost as unpleasant as their actions.

Valerie · Answer

I am constantly astounded by the imaginative and often terrifying creatures the Qu in 'All Tomorrows' come up with to affect humanity in most unusual and terrifying ways. They are an extremely advanced race that modify the human form to create the most terrifying creatures ever imagined - writhing mass of worm like creatures that fall apart when dead or silly floating sacks of human goo. Not only do they create these creatures but their technology is loosely based on genetic modification - manipulating genes as one would play with clay, completely rewriting the basic structure of entire species.

However, the Qu are also so fascinating because they represent the culmination of cosmic Darwinism taken to its most extreme form. Rather than conquering humanity, the Qu made it evolutionarily extinct through their twisted ‘gifts’. A species of billions of minds united as one were rendered solitary through genetic tampering. Predators of all shapes and sizes were neutered and made to graze like sheep. And all of this through the evolution of humanity as if played by a child with a pack of crayons. Humanity’s remnants are left to writhe and snivel through the aeons. But what happens to the Qu themselves? Do they get toppled by their very handiwork? The Qu’s story is one of both horror and hubris.

Elise · Answer

The Qu from ‘All Tomorrows’ are aliens so advanced that they treat genetic engineering with the same childlike abandon that one would use when finger painting. The cosmic bullies are creatively cruel, reworking the human form into increasingly absurd and often useless guises. While some of the transformed humans are symmetrically proportioned artworks, others are simply rolled out as carpets made of meat. ‘All Tomorrows’ is not just another body horror story. Rather it is a scathing exploration of power and the Qu are a godless, amoral species who treat life with all the seriousness of a child playing with play-dough. They are simply having their way with existence.

Jay Vigafria · Answer

I rather appreciate the Qu aren't defeated in some grand battle. There's no alliance of modified species that fight against them to defend their homeworld. The Qu simply complete their work and leave, or perhaps die off themselves for some unknown reason. Their downfall is left as mysterious as their origin. This doesn't make them less of an enemy to fight against, but rather they are a force of nature that one must survive and outlast. And their defeat is not a defeat of the Qu themselves, but rather a defeat of the environment that they imposed upon the universe. It is a slow, hard, eventual evolution, and not a military conquest. It's a pretty subversive take on the hero's journey, and it makes the subsequent evolution of life on Earth seem a lot more organic and hard-won. The Qu are simply an obstacle that the universe had to overcome in due time, through slow, stubborn evolution.

Chloe Lair · Answer

It’s rare that one considers that perhaps the Qu are afraid of the diverse, adaptable, star-faring post-humans. That perhaps their ‘punishment’ is a pre-emptive strike to render them helpless for all time. In turn, this adds a layer of strategic (even if horrible) logic to their actions. Rather than purely aesthetic arbiters of life and death, the Qu are paranoid gardeners pruning the galactic tree to prevent any one branch from growing too tall and eventually competing with them for space. Not sympathetic in the least, but a more comprehensible (political/survival-driven) entity than mere random cosmic sadists.

Marko Bello · Answer

This is a great example of “show, not tell” on an enormous scale. We are told very little about the Qu themselves, but their impact on the galaxy is so immense that it leaves a lasting scar. The character of the Qu is best seen through their absence and how the galaxy has changed as a result of them. Every strange species, every myth of a time of suffering, every genetic dead end is a testament to the Qu’s existence. We are shown the wound of the Qu, but never the weapon that caused it. Our imagination fills in the blanks with our greatest fears, and thus the Qu are made so much more powerful as an enigmatic and largely unseen force. Revealing their history, motives, etc. would make them seem so much smaller than they already are. As it stands, they are vast, ancient, and horrific.

mariaho98 · Answer

It's really quite simple: the Qu are the dark opposite of the nice advanced aliens who come down to Earth to help share their most advanced technology with humans to help uplift them. Instead, the Qu ‘uplift’ a species to a form which the Qu believe is suitable for the species in question. And the Qu’s philosophy seems to be one of imposing order – the Qu’s order – upon species which are, in the Qu’s eyes, too chaotic or otherwise aesthetically unsatisfactory in their current biological form. This is a take on cultural imperialism which has been ramped up to the intergalactic, the biological. Rather than studying life forms from other civilizations in order to learn from them, the Qu seek to correct said life forms. And rather than any old violence being perpetrated in order to ‘improve’ a species, what the Qu do is slow and fundamental to the very essence of the species in question. This genetic violence is fundamental and is typically affects entire generations of a species before it is fully realized by said species. And it’s this slow, inexorable erosion of the very essence of a species which is at the heart of all the horror that they inspire.

prettebry · Answer

What’s most fascinating to me, however, is the methodology of the Qu. Their’s isn’t a war of starships blowing up other starships. No, they carry out a systematic, surgical dismantling of an entire phylogenetic tree using (for example) the ‘Colonial’ virus. What’s most disturbing is that this kind of destruction is carried out from the inside. The children of your children’s children are changed forever until eventually there is nothing left of what once was. On the other hand, this species is also really, really fascinating when viewed through the scope of a speculative biologist. They’re the ultimate genetic engineers – with a warped and evil purpose to create species, able to embody suffering and to enslave their kind. Qu must be some kind of dark parody of directed evolution or of intelligent design – in both cases they ‘play God’ but with an inherently malignant twist.

enno hardi · Answer

This thread is going so deep. Every interpretation that I’ve read so far has made me want to re-read the section with the Qu so I can get a better understanding of how he’s so complex as a concept. There’s the artistic cruelty of his actions, the long-term timescale of everything that he does, and there’s so much ambiguity too. It’s a very well-crafted concept, this “bad guy” that isn’t one-dimensional at all.

Afrida Nainggolan · Answer

Is the Qu benevolent? Perhaps from their unique perspective on the universe they are improving these species to increase efficiency, or perhaps they are simply removing traits which they consider to be ‘negative’ i.e. aggression, ambition etc. Perhaps their aesthetic for these creatures is one of perfect docile utility. The horror of the Qu’s actions is so far removed from their intentions that it is almost ‘classic’ sci-fi – the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that. And viewed from a somewhat detached amoral perspective is there any difference between hell and utopia? Provided you’re removed enough from the two designs perhaps the only variable is that of the designer’s values. The Qu would, no doubt, think they’d done a great job and left.

Who Are The Qu In 'All Tomorrows'?

12 Answers

Related Books

The Fated Queen

The Children of Triune

I KNOW THE FUTURE:THE LAST SURVIVOR

Quillon: The Alpha King (The Rare Wolf Series #3)

The Remaining

The Alpha Protocol

Topic

Related Questions

What is the ending of 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow'?

How does Gone Tomorrow end?

How does 'In Perpetuity' end?

What happens at the end of 'An Echo of Things to Come'?

How does Now, Voyager end?

Who are the main characters in 'This Is How You Lose the Time War'?

How does 'Our Infinite Fates' end?

What connects Ruth and Nao in 'A Tale for the Time Being'?

What does the ending of The Elsewhere Express mean?

Who are the main characters in my dystopian robot girlfriend?