Using the Program Guide of the World Science
Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (to which I will be unable
to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against,
and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program
Guide. The link is provided below where this appeared at 7 pm on Friday the 16th…
Creating Alien Aliens:
Part 2: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Speculative
Biology: An introduction to the art and field of speculative biology (aka
speculative evolution). Panelists addressed three questions, focusing on how we
make the relevant plants and animals scientifically plausible:
- What is the future of life on Earth?
- How might life on Earth have turned out differently if
events had occurred differently?
- What could life on other planets be like?
Mick Schubert: writer,
editor, and science consultant for Marvel Comics; works in paleontology and
evolution, genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology
Dr Helen
Pennington: Moderator, DEFRA, Plant Health Evidence and Analysis, grafts cacti
together in her free time
S. Spencer Baker: (He’s
dead…three years prior to this event…or he time traveled into the future or
something, apparently he believes he’s clever and funny or something…) I don’t
understand any of this, so we’ll just leave it at that.
Dr V Anne Smith: Computational
biologist, A Code For Carolyn: A Genomic Thriller
Adrian Tchaikovsky:
Author, loved his work in his novel CHILDREN OF TIME, UK author with over
20 novels. Worked in law, studied zoology, psychology
Dr Bob: A Civil
Servant…
While this was a
fascinating discussion and I would have loved being there, I want to look at
where this subject is leading me.
My current work-in-progress
(wip) and a couple I just finished deal specifically with speculative biology.
The wip concerns the Milky Way if there are only two sapient people – Humans (which
we know about) and the WheetAH, plantimal aliens who are described as “short,
needle-less, barrel cactus-shape” and card-carrying members of the Plant
Kingdom (having evolved from Euglena-like, Volvox-like, pea aphid-like, green
sea slug-like, spotted salamander-like organisms). Obviously, they also have
vastly different ways of viewing the universe. I call this the WheetAh-Human
Universe.
A story I just
finished will eventually have Humans joining (as provisional sapients,
currently!) a Unity of Sapients. Some of the aliens I’ve
invented: “*ting* – planet bound, crystalline lifeform that communicates by
phased radio pulses.”; “Benkaithanintanis – a space-living, asteroid-sized
intelligence”; “Field-of-Dreams – a semi-autonomous intelligent plant/amoeba
that occupies thousands of hectares on its home world and colonies. It
communicates through chemically induced dreams.”; “Kifush – they’re some sort
of disconnected intelligence, ‘system non-integrated colonial arthropod’. A
monstrous pill bug holding the leashes of smaller pill bugs of various sizes.”;
“Leviathan – ocean-going “eel” that communicates entirely by taste.”; “Pak/Gref
– primate-descended mobile, sensory/cognition invasive Gref “units” of a massive
ocean-born “worm”, the Pak.”; “Ybraith – neon Nautiluses suspended from
balloons”; and the “Zham Woyi – Queen mother is giant sea star with square
limbs studded with crystalline prisms that refracted light and trailing a
parachute, made of lead and leaded crystal.”
I haven’t worked
out all of the biology yet (I have it for the Pak/Gref and the
Benkaithanintanis), but I’ve got several of them sketched out.
The last is Confluence
versus Empire (currently confined to exploring one planet, a puffy
Jupiter called River. I sometimes refer to this as the River Universe.) Here,
there are no aliens, but Humans split into to factions that coalesced into civilizations.
In the Confluence of Humanity, genetic engineering is practiced to the edges of
possibility. ANYTHING is legal and manipulation of the Human genome has created
people capable of living anywhere.
The Empire of Man has
laws that all boil down to one essential paradigm – anyone who is less than
sixty-five percent Original Human DNA is “not human” and without rights. Time
has eroded the sharpest edges of that law. People who are slightly less than
65% can get an education, own property, and have a few other civil rights, but
in essence, they are not truly Human. The Imperial Family maintains its
Original Human DNA at 95%. DNA stored from the early 21st Century is
the Imperial Standard (some modifications for health and life extension
purposes are permitted.)
So, those are the
three Universes I write in. All three have challenges and are fun to work in. I’ve
had stories from all three published at one time or another, so my work is at
least somewhat believable.
Of the
participants above, the only I’ve read is Adrian Tchaikovsky. His CHILDREN OF
TIME is an absolute stunning read! Otherwise, he writes fantasy (which is fine,
but in most cases, not my cup of tea). The world-building in the first book is
amazing and the concepts staggering!
One last thing, in
creating alien aliens, I’m not sure I ONLY mean aliens who are obvious. In my reading,
I’ve found that changing a single paradigm, you end up with people who are, by
all appearances and most behavior, entirely Human. However, their underlying
beliefs and behaviors are as alien to me as say, James Cambias’ lobster-like,
intelligent Ilmatarans. Mile Vorkosigan’s world appears “normal” to us, but the
underlying assumption, that children produced via something called a “uterine
replicator” are totally normal…and makes for alien (and entertaining!)
thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment