Mission failure (Five minutes freewrite)

The professor stares with empty eyes into the screens on the wall. He's stopped paying any real attention long ago. Why would he? He's checked the data millions of times before - his project is way over the top on resource consumption, it's bound to fail sooner or later. In the mean time, he's running out of money and his boss is running out of patience.
The only reason why the whole operation has not yet been shut down is that they're still trying to figure out what went wrong. How could something so promising end up such a miserable failure?
The initial lab tests were a giant success. The test subjects were so quick at picking up new skills and developing their cognitive abilities. So creative at figuring out their environment and making use of what was available to better their condition.

Sure, they needed a discrete nudge from time to time, like all the other experiments, but to a lesser extent. Remember the frenzy when old Xian was sent over to acquaint them with the concept of transportation means. All he had to do was give them the basics and they came up with a surprising number of inventions, some laughable, indeed, but most of them incredibly clever. In time, Xian himself became pessimistic. Each time he went to mingle among them they applauded his intelligence, called him a genius, built him statues and then went on to put any new idea they'd been given to a destructive use.
Conditions deteriorated to a point where they spent all their time bickering and fighting among themselves. They could have reached for the stars, but they didn't.
Some in the organization, the professor included, were of the opinion that all they needed was another little nudge to help them develop superior consciousness, the so-called third eye, to understand they're all one species and part of a magnificent universe. But the bosses shot the whole idea down, saying that Terrans had been given plenty of options and possibilities, which they had chosen to ignore. They were a greedy lot - that was the main problem.
Maybe they could start all over again and do it differently - help them develop consciousness first, then give them the wheel.
The professor called up an empty screen and typed in the name of his new project: Earth 2.0.

Story written for @mariannewest's freewrite challenge. Check out her blog and join our freewrite community. Image by @loliboofae - thanks so much for letting us use it!