sarah or vik || 30 || mirror pronouns || steel city || autistic mystic. i use this blog as a dipshit internet scrapbook for things i like: speculative art and fiction, scattershot music taste, some video games, interesting animals, fashion, memes, very little actual stem. check tags page for specifics
hey what’s up. most of the relevant info for this blog is already in my description except for the tags page which got unlinked at some point, and some basic blog policies, because i’m friendly and love to talk to folks on here but sometimes people are weird. not so much a DNI as a "do interact if,” and also an “i won’t interact if.”
encouraged:
going through my tags (that’s what they’re for!)
tag talking on my posts
messaging me to talk about any common interests (just be aware that my queue runs 24/7 so it may look like i’m online when i’m not)
mutuals messaging me to talk about whatever. mutuals can also ask for my other socials
discouraged to outright blocked, in roughly that order:
hitting on me (it will not work)
any interaction from minors. nothing personal just wanna be able to talk about adult topics
any interaction from pro-ana or porn blogs (wrt the latter, erotic art is fine but if your blog is all porn gifs i’m not gonna interact)
any interaction from blogs that post content supporting the various -phobias or -isms that negatively affect marginalized people. no terfs no trads no nazis etc.
final note, i’m very hyperlexic and terrible at intuiting online social norms, my apologies if i tag talked on your post and you found it annoying--am usually trying to add (what i think is) interesting context, not trying to be condescending or argumentative :)
I honestly didn't mean to write a full-on essay, but I couldn't help myself -I love specbio, and the recent revival of interest in it makes me very happy. If you wanna just get right to the meat: normal links are highlighted blue, YouTube links are highlighted red.
Speculative biology has its roots as far back as Pliny the Elder and his Natural History, though most consider H.G. Wells to be the true grandfather of the genre with works such as War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and Man of the Year Million. However, any speculative biologist worth their salt credits Dougal Dixon as the father of specbio as we know it today –especially since he is the man who coined the term! Dixon's books After Man, Man After Man, and The New Dinosaurs are considered the foundational works of modern specbio. So too is Wayne Barlowe's book Expedition.
While the original printings of these books are very expensive to acquire, After Man recently received a Kindle version, and Expedition has a very good documentary adaptation available in totality on YouTube. Another important work of early speculative biology was the Discovery Channel limited series The Future Is Wild, a documentary show exploring the possible futures of life on Earth in several million years' time.
With the rise of the internet, people interested in speculative biology –those few and far between– could share their thoughts and amateur works with each other. Online specbio hit its first height around the mid-aughts to early tens, featuring many notable works that were very influential to me personally when I joined the scene circa 2014. Unfortunately, right around when I joined there was a notable "mass extinction" –many of the more active and prominent figures of the specbio community left the web behind for various reasons, and thus the golden age ended.
In recent years, partially thanks to certain YouTube video essays on the classic projects, interest in speculative biology seems to have increased dramatically! I've taken to calling the current era the "specbio renaissance," and it makes me so happy to see new, younger people interested in this unique facet of creativity. In light of this I've created this master post of my personal recommendations of essential specbio works for new "speccers" to enjoy!
The specbio community has congregated on forums for decades. I personally joined the community via DeviantArt right around when the old ZetaBoards forum underwent a massive host shift and never participated on the forum all that much, but fortunately the old Speculative Evolution Forum is still up and still active!
For those who'd prefer a simpler way to keep up with current events in the specbio community, Astrovitae is a free e-magazine dedicated to contemporary spec. A product of the recent specbio renaissance, Astrovitae only has a handful of issues thus far but is already becoming a staple publication in the field.
I made this post to provide what I think is key information and important resources, but the SpecBio Wiki is a far more thorough companion to your journey into the world of speculative biology. As always, though: beware ye old Wiki Rabbit Hole!
Biblaridion's Alien Biospheres video series is an excellent entry point for anyone looking to learn the basics of specbio. It's a demo xenobiology project, with a heavy focus on the scientific concepts used in building up the world and its ecology.
Curious Archive's Alien Worlds video series is an excellent collection of bite-size examinations of various specbio projects, including several on this list!
Nemo Ramjet (C. M. Kösemen)'s Life on Snaiad is universally considered a classic work of speculative biology, started in the early days of the golden age of internet specbio. Snaiad is an alien planet, in its early days of human habitation, filled with strange lifeforms bearing two "heads."
Kösemen's other well-known classic work is Alltomorrows, a short ebook exploring hundreds of millions of years' worth of possible human evolution. Readers, be advised: this work contains extensive body horror and discussion of human extinction, both circumstantial and deliberate.
Sagan IV, originally created by Hydromancerx, is one of the oldest and most extensive specbio projects. Started as a simple artistic exercise on a forum in 2006, Sagan IV has evolved into a large, highly collaborative vision of an alien world inspired by the works of Carl Sagan. It is still ongoing today, and you can participate in their regular contests and activities!
Gert van Dijk's Furaha is another of the well-known classic specbio projects, and one of the few from the golden age that is still fully active. Furaha itself is an alien world orbiting Nu Phoenicis which harbors a fascinating native biosphere, built upon carefully-researched biomechanics. The site itself is laid out much like an encyclopedia, and the accompanying blog is a treasure trove of specbio know-how and community history!
Sunrise on Ilion, a xenobiology project by @supermalmoworld, is a personal favorite of mine. Ilion is a planet tidally locked to a red dwarf star, and its endemic lifeforms often challenge our expectations for Earth-like ecology. The website boasts extremely detailed information on the setting and its inhabitants, as well as in-universe articles and logs of the various human expeditions to this fascinating world. The project is still active on a very sporadic basis, at least as per blog entries.
Nereus is a xenobiology project created by Evan Black; another reasonably well-known golden age work but one that is unfortunately no longer active. The world of Nereus, orbiting the star Achird, teems with life unfamiliar to the humans which seek to adopt it as their home. Like many specbio projects it adopts a documentarian style, but there are plenty of nuggets of story tucked in the articles.
Serina is a contemporary speculative evolution project created by the legendary Sheather; it is what I would consider the holotype of the "seed-world" branch of specbio. Serina is a planet populated only by the descendants of the domestic canary (and a few other organisms like guppies, snails, ants, sunflowers, bamboo, algae, etc). The project digs deeply into the various unique niches of the world and the organisms that evolve to fill them, and in doing so mixes nature-documentarian style with some of the most compelling and emotionally engaging storytelling I have read in years.
These are just what I think are the essentials. There are numerous other fantastic projects, both contemporary and from years ago, that I would highly suggest investigating! Contemporary honorable mentions that personally inspire me include @alexriesart's birrin, @iguanodont's birgs, @jayrockin's Runaway to the Stars, Christian Cline's Teeming Universe, Keenan Taylor's Kaimere, and my friend Mičkin's Temere!
thinking about what makes humans special and I’m kind of in love with the idea of a sci-fi universe where humans are the first and only species that invented FTL because we just Would Not Fucking Give Up on it. all these other interstellar civilizations are thousands of years older than we are and most have megastructures and immortality and plasma weapons and crazy advanced supercomputers. but they all resigned themselves to the fact that FTL is impossible, and nearly shat themselves when these primitive backwater super-monkeys showed up in their systems by dropping out of warp drive.
“How did you do that?” they ask, with their effortless and flawless auto-translators that are centuries from anything we could achieve.
“Do what?” we reply, eyeing the oxygen meter because we still haven’t quite perfected atmospheric recycling.
“What do you mean, ‘do what?’” they press, incredulous. “Your spacecraft just crossed an interplanetary distance in minutes!”
“Oh, the Alcubierre drive? Pretty simple, we just tricked the quantum vacuum into giving off a controlled negative energy density to create a localized bubble of warped spacetime that amplifies apparent velocity. Still working on the power efficiency though, it’s real basic and eats up so much fusion fuel.”
“You did WHAT to spacetime?? With a fusion reactor?! What about relativity?!”
“Yeah it turns out Einstein was a little wrong and the universe can be treated as a single reference frame, because knowing takes precedence over observing... Hang on, how do you guys with your Dyson spheres and antimatter engines not have faster-than-light drives?”
“HOW DO YOU FUSION DRIVE SIMPLETONS HAVE THEM?! We tried for centuries and gave up on it!”
“Oh yeah it took a while but we just kept trying.”
hi doug!! reading the new uncharted realms, i felt an enormous amount of sympathy for narset, specifically with reference to the beginning sequence with her as a kid. the restlessness, the sensory overload, the self-distraction with counting and observation - these, to me, heavily code narset as being autistic. i am autistic myself and it would mean the absolute world to me to know that a character in a game i care deeply about is like me, and many other folks. is this something you can confirm?
That was the intent, yes. The most important part of Narset’s character is her amazing mind, which is central to her potential as a powerful Planeswalker and as a pursuer of knowledge — but it happens that she processes information and input differently than a lot of other people. Tarkir denizens might not have a term for the autism spectrum or being neurodivergent or neuro-atypical, but those terms would correctly describe her. In this timeline she is not khan of the Jeskai, but no matter the circumstances, she hasn’t let go of her commitment to seeking her own path to wisdom and truth. Kudos to Creative Team member Kimberly Kreines for exploring this aspect of Narset in her story “The Great Teacher’s Student.”
You utter a statement. Someone says, “Yet. Growth mindset.” This happens more and more. If you are very careful in your phrasing, you may hear, “So far,” instead. You speak in soft whispers, alone. Pessimistically. “Yet,” says a voice. “Growth mindset.” Silently, in a deserted office, you say nothing. “Growth mindset,” says the voice. Louder. It is growing.
You did not always live in the Bay Area. Once you began a circle of friends based around similar interests, somewhere else, far away. You made a pilgrimage. You did not return. You do not know if you have abandoned your friends to the wider world or if they will join you one day. You do not know what you hope they will do.
It has been six weeks since you met someone who was not a programmer. Perhaps everyone is a programmer. If we were in a simulation, everything would be programming.
You’re sure you’re imagining the blood on your friends’ teeth when they endorse killing babies. That was only a story. You’re so happy.
It is the Solstice. Something is wrong with the tech for the ISS footage. You wait in darkness. You have a light, but you are forbidden to ignite it.
You listen to Michael Vassar. You don’t remember traveling to this party or sitting on this beanbag. You don’t remember when he began to speak. He is still speaking. He sounds like madness and glory given lisping poetry, and you want to obey.
Someone is getting married. You speak dutifully of statistics when asked what you think of their wisdom. Someone toasts the Chosen One. You raise a glass that is lit with changing colors.
You are caught up with Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. You have always been caught up on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. You were born caught up on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Your car clock ticks to the moment of its update and you drift into oncoming traffic as you scramble for your phone. You will always be caught up on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
You’re struggling with akrasia. You have insight into your condition. You pity people who don’t even know to call it “akrasia”. You have not done anything in months.
Your house has a name. Your house’s whiteboards have messages on them that none of you remember writing. Your house wants you to buy seaweed snacks and almonds. They’re paleo. Your house is concerned about diets of the ancestral environment. Your house is gluten-free.
You have not found a way to connect your hobby to rationalism yet. It itches. You are not whole. It is forbidden to post an article entitled Rationalist Hobby on Less Wrong. You lie awake at three in the morning, trying to create puns.
You stare at plastic pyramids. Your eyes are playing tricks on you. There is a koan with both a black and a white Go stone. Your eyes must be playing tricks on you.
You have a nightmare about committing the fallacy fallacy fallacy fallacy fallacy fallacy fallacy. You wake up. You haven’t, really. Probably. One is not a probability and you are not safe, never safe.
You see movement out of the corner of your eye. You dismiss it on priors. You still see it. You dismiss it on priors. You fear updating.
You are prepared for Omega to appear to you and present you choices. Ecstatic choices that will leave you laughing from the top of a heap of utility or in torment for all eternity. You are ready. You fear and yearn for this day in equal measure. You are ready and know exactly what you will do and so does Omega.
You want to be frozen when you die. Not sooner. You look around corners before you step past. Sometimes, you consider leaving your necklace at home. Not yet.
You aren’t afraid of paperclips. They can’t hurt you. They’re only paperclips. Don’t be afraid.
Politics is the mindkiller. You do not need to come up with thoughts about politics. They would only kill your mind. Rest now.
You have expanded your comfort zone. Today you have committed two felonies and eaten a motorcycle. You are comfortable, you remind yourself, as you flee the authorities. You are comfortable.
You abandon a sunk cost. You didn’t want to. It’s crying.
You donate to effective charities to signal virtue to your friends. They are impressed. You feel cold. Friendship isn’t about affection. You signal louder and louder to nothing and no one. You have never done anything real. You are not real.
Everyone you know is talking about the end of the world. They say they are worried. They talk about it a lot. They barely talk about anything else. It seems like they are having so much fun. They say they are worried. They only chant dark rituals sometimes.
