Extraterrestrial Evolution?

Newbie Joined: Sep 08, 2003 Posts: 19

After much badgering and pestering, I 've finally been convinced by my wife and friends to begin writing an honest-to-goodness novel. I'm quite happy they did as I'm really enjoying the writing process. The story deals with many philosophical topics in a fatnasy/psuedo-sci-fi setting, and I intend to include a few alien worlds into the tale. I wanted the boidiversity on these worlds to follow a logical structure based on the what we know about evolution, but I am pestered by questions that I cannot seem to find the answers to. I just finished reading "The Ancestor's Tale" by the always amazing Richard Dawkins, and he touched up on a few of the questions that I had in the chapter entitled "The Host's Return", but he did not answer them (it really wasn't his intent to go into life on other worlds within the scope of the book).

How would a planet's qualities affect the evolution of life on that particalur planet? Things like the speed of it's rotation, angle of it's axis tilt, magnetic field strength, orbital speed around it's star, possible multiple stars, chemical composition.... there are just so many things that I do not know and would love to find out about without having to become an expert in chemical biology or astronomy.

All the evolutionary material I've read with deals with explaining life on THIS planet, explaining why an Earth organism need this and that, why they behave this and that way, and so on. I need some info on how evolution might play out in enviornments where all the variables are different. I need some useful guidelines and resources, not necassary plain answers to plagiarize. Anyone know about any good websites or books to read up on to help me in my plight? Or should I just wing it and say, "Life on this planet is like this because I say so"? I'd much rather it make sense than taking the lazy way out. Please help!

Graduate Thinker Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 843

Watch Alien Planet by Discovery Channel. It has to do with a simulated finding of a planet named Darwin 5 i beleive. That supports life, but life like none seen on earth, I beleive it covers most fo the grounds for a basic idea for you book.

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:11 am

realgamer4ever

My husband is a sc-fic fan, he has a bookshelf covered with a couple of "thousand" paper back books.

I for one, cannot understand any of them. I have tried to read some of them, and have read the odd one or two that he thought I might actually be able to follow.

But my husband says, (typing as he speaks now) : "if you establish a set of basic concepts, and as long as whatever you write follows logically from your basic premises, then you should be okay.

Everything has to be logically related and self consistent.

So it doesn't really matter if it's true or not. If you were limited to what is true, then you wouldn't have Sci-fic would you?"

I thought he might be interested as I just read out your post to him.

He also mentioned the Alien Planet - by Discovery. I missed it, and am going to see if I can u-torrent the program.

I wouldn't mind seeing that myself, as I am interested in Sci-fic, I just have problems following these books hubby reads, because of the strange words that get used, and cannot sometimes even imagine the descriptions of some of these so called "aliens, their weapons, or space ships"... but that's me... hehe

Good luck with your book.

Newbie Joined: Sep 08, 2003 Posts: 19

Alien Planet, eh? I must seek this out immediately, seeing as how it is very relevant to what I am asking about. That is some great advice, Sunamiren. I guess I am obessessing over these details a bit too much, but the fact of the matter is that I am in the middle of a slight writers dillemma. when it comes to these alien worlds. Let me explain.

Some of the main characters in the book are going to be some kind of intelligent alien life forms from different planets, and as such, I have to figure out how to make the readers relate to them. For example, do I give these aliens a generally humanoid form with human-like physical and mental functions to help facilitate a clearer picture of the character for the reader, thus making their interactions easier to relate to ? If so, what would be the point of making them an "alien" in the first place?

Conversely, I can go really far out with it, creating organisms in the most bizzarre sense that I can imagine, helping to foster that otherworldy atmosphere that I am shooting for. The detriment is that it might turn off too many readers, as Sumarin here. These readers are not very interested in the hard core Lovecraftian-tales and seem to lean towards "sci-fi/fantasy lite." I'd rather not "alienate" them if don't have to. (Bad pun, I know... but I couldn't resist Rolling Eyes

)

But then again, Spock is one of the most memorable sci-fi characters of all time, and he was just some middle-aged dude with plastic ears.. I dunno.... maybe I'll watch this Alien Planet and let the show marinate in my brain for a bit. Thanks for responding!

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:00 am

realgamer4ever I would not worry too much about "readers" such as I. You will attract may readers who like fantasy, sci-fic and the like.

I always tease my husband about his "many useless" books, I lovingly call them, because I am into reading biographies, Atheist related books, Richard Dawkins stuff, philosophy books, even those I find hard to understand at times.

You will no doubt reach these people, mentioned above, because there are many out there, believe me. My husband's father reads sci-fic, his brother, his niece.. so it runs in the family. How many more are out there... thousands upon thousands... hehe

Let your imagination run wild, it seems the weirder the better! The point of writing sci-fic or fictional books is just that, that you can let the story go where you want.

My daughter is into writing as well, and has written some weird stories, she has some imagination. She already had one of her "normal" stories printed in Readers Digest, (Aussie Version)... I was very proud of her.

So, go by your imagination. Some people have problems with imaginations, so you are lucky if you can put it all down on paper.

Oh and I am currently copying the Alien Planet down from u-torrent - Mininova

Newbie Joined: Nov 28, 2006 Posts: 21 Location: USA

I have given some thought to this topic, as I've been writing / rewriting my own scifi saga. A while back I found this website at UC-Berkleey, created for a class on the topic of creating a solar system and life bearing world from scratch, I believe it was for 82 Eridani (try google). Really, the ski is the limit. Have fun!

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:37 pm

Kelreth wrote:

Watch Alien Planet by Discovery Channel. It has to do with a simulated finding of a planet named Darwin 5 i beleive. That supports life, but life like none seen on earth, I beleive it covers most fo the grounds for a basic idea for you book.

yeah, that show was great!

the CGI was actually pretty good, too.

Graduate Thinker Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 843

Moloth wrote:

Kelreth wrote:

Watch Alien Planet by Discovery Channel. It has to do with a simulated finding of a planet named Darwin 5 i beleive. That supports life, but life like none seen on earth, I beleive it covers most fo the grounds for a basic idea for you book.

yeah, that show was great!

the CGI was actually pretty good, too.

im hoping to get it this winter, through one way or another. i love what they did with it, they thought it out and didnt it rationally, truely amazing

i also like the implications of it

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:06 am

Okay, I watched Alien Planet the other night after downloading it.

I just wondered, why do these scientists envision such ugly and horrible creatures?
Why is it that alien life has to be so god damned ugly?

Why can't life on an alien planet be beautiful for instance? Something like we have never seen before? Something utterly fantastic?

Why are these creatures, always so ugly? our own Dinosaurs weren't this ugly?

"reagamer4ever"... please imagine at least "some" good looking creatures in your book! hehe

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:29 am

I must mention the book series by Arthur C Clarke and later co-written with Gentry Lee, the Rama series: Rendezvous with Rama , Rama II , The Gardens of Rama , the last of the series Rama Revealed.

Fantastic creatures and fantastic imagination from the master of Sci-Fi.
If you haven't read those books, do so. You will enjoy it.

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:17 am

pr126 wrote:

I must mention the book series by Arthur C Clarke and later co-written with Gentry Lee, the Rama series: Rendezvous with Rama , Rama II , The Gardens of Rama , the last of the series Rama Revealed.

Fantastic creatures and fantastic imagination from the master of Sci-Fi.
If you haven't read those books, do so. You will enjoy it.

Are you referring to me? pr126? I have written them down and will see if I can get them. Maybe my husband already has them. Will check it out with him.

I can't see why alien's can't be as beautiful as they are ugly.... Have you seen the movie "The Abyss?"..... I was so taken by the imagination of that sea creature, and the music that went with the moment it took Ed Harris up from the sea, it was fantastic. Now they were very alien, yet so beautiful....

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:05 am

Hi sunamiren, how are you?

My post was directed to all, I am recommending those books to everybody, because I found them a very good read. I like Sci FI very much.

About aliens or terrestrials, beautiful or ugly is really subjective, who is to say that the human body would be pleasing to an extraterrestrial life form?

There are some amazing creatures in the deep sea that can look quite alien to our eyes. I just got a DVD set "The Blue Planet" where you can see all sorts of lifeforms from tiny iridescent creatures to fish with razor sharp teeth "ugly as a creature from hell" so there must be creatures in the cosmos that we cannot possibly imagine.

I have the video "The Abyss" and liked it very much.
That said, I do not believe in UFO's or anything like that.

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:24 am

Well, I don't believe in UFO's either, but when they are good to look at they get me "in" more then if they are so ugly... hehe.. maybe it's because I'm a woman I want "pretty things"...

I was fascinated though by the mere imagination of that "thing" in the Abyss, and also, the very first sci-fic movie I ever watched, which was, "Close Encounters"... I just loved the ending... like, "wow"... or Short Circuit, or ET... etc. Movies that are fascinating, yet unreal, but close to maybe "could be real"...

I like Sci-fic movies that "make sense"..... I do not like those that seem hard to follow, and I DON'T like all the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver. I like her, but not her role. I don't like things that grow in and out of bodies etc... It's all just too gory for my taste. Gives me nightmares!

But that's just me.

Loved the movie, Stargate for instance. My husband tried to "convert" me, from, "this cannot possibly happen" to " just enjoy it for the entertainment value"... I changed my tune after that. I was too, let's say, rational, couldn't let myself "go"... until he taught me how to. Now I can enjoy several sci-fic movies.

I have very vivid and colourful dreams. I dream way too much and it often annoys me. Now I often have such alien dreams that sometimes I think I could write a book on just those dreams. I don't know where that comes from. Most of the time I am flying in those dreams, and that always feels fantastic. The aliens I dream about are also amazing. I have no idea where that comes from, but it's quite fascinating, apart from the fact that I often wake up and feel like I've been "busy all night". I think that's one of the reasons I have to be careful what I watch, because I dream so much, and when I saw the Alien Planet on Discovery, I found that those creatures gave me a very unpleasant feeling. I worry that I will have nightmares, which I also have.

My husband often wakes me up, during my groaning nightmare where I am in a fix and can't escape. These are really horrific at times. So I have to have pleasant thoughts and pictures in my head before I go to sleep. Sounds weird I know. But then, maybe I am weird... hehe

And... I"m rambling.. sorry and don't know why I needed to share that..... Rolling Eyes

Graduate Thinker Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 843

sunamiren wrote:

Okay, I watched Alien Planet the other night after downloading it.

I just wondered, why do these scientists envision such ugly and horrible creatures?
Why is it that alien life has to be so god damned ugly?

Why can't life on an alien planet be beautiful for instance? Something like we have never seen before? Something utterly fantastic?

Why are these creatures, always so ugly? our own Dinosaurs weren't this ugly?

"reagamer4ever"... please imagine at least "some" good looking creatures in your book! hehe

think about it. does beauty make the creature have a better chance of survival? i dont think so, its not essential to life errr doesnt help the creature procreate. Though look at us, we are hairless (generally speaking, we arent completly covered in hair) creatures that walk around with a strange gait. Any extraterestial would look at us as ugly, with their form being beauty, it is all subjective

but evolution wise, beauty only helps humans procreate, i dont think my dog being beauty is going to get him laid any faster than him being the way he is right now

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:43 pm

lol... yeah, really... somehow, i don't think that the aliens think of themselves as being ugly!

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

there is no universal, objective standard for "pretty".


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