Eloi
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for information on Saint Eloi, the Christian apostle to Flanders, see Saint Eligius
The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine. In the year AD 802701, humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are the rich, attractive upper class which lives in luxury on the surface of the earth while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing and infrastructure for the Eloi. Each class evolved (or degenerated) from different social classes as humans, a theme that reflects upon Wells' sociopolitical opinions.
The main difference from their earlier ruler-worker state is that while the Morlocks continue to support the world's infrastructure and serve the Eloi, the Eloi have undergone significant phyical and mental deterioration. Having solved all problems which required strength, intelligence or virtue, they have slowly become dissolute, frail idiots. While one initially has the impression that the Eloi live a life of play and toilless abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are tending to their needs as a farmer tends to cattle. It seems that Eloi comprise most(if not all) of the Morlock diet and the Eloi are no longer capable of acting in any other role.
In Neal Stephenson's brilliant essay on modern culture vis-a-vis OS development, "In the begining there was the Command Line," he demonstrates similarities between the future in The Time Traveller and contemporary American culture. He claims that most Americans have been exposed to a "corporate monoculture" which renders them "unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands." Anyone who remains outside of this "culture" is left with powerful tools to deal with the world, and it is they, rather than the neutered Eloi, that run things. The assumption seems to be that the Eloi will manage to fill their heads with garbage one way or the other, so our culture exists to ensure that it is harmless garbage rather than the dangerous types that lead to disruptions, violence, wars and inquisitions.
To quote Stephenson directly:
- "But in our world it's the other way round. The Morlocks are in the minority, and they are running the show, because they understand how everything works. The much more numerous Eloi learn everything they know from being steeped from birth in electronic media directed and controlled by book-reading Morlocks. So many ignorant people could be dangerous if they got pointed in the wrong direction, and so we've evolved a popular culture that is (a) almost unbelievably infectious and (b) neuters every person who gets infected by it, by rendering them unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands."
The progressive rock band Eloy are named after the race.
The Elokoi of Brian Caswell's novel Deucalion are presumably inspired by the Eloi, but ones without the dark side of the Morloks.