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| year 802,701 | |
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| Topic Started: May 23 2012, 01:29 AM (1,438 Views) | |
| Akurian452 | May 23 2012, 01:29 AM Post #1 |
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Adolescent
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Hey everyone. I'm a new member but I have been checking out this site for some time now and have wanted to get feedback on some ideas that I want to incorporate in science fiction novels I'm working on. I like to have those Ideas to be as accurate and believable as possible (I'm a perfectionist that way  ), so I'm asking you guys. As you can guess from the title of this topic, my first novel takes place in the year 802,701 (it explains why). So I'm listing some creatures that I think could exists by that time (in the my novel the majority of humans died out due to event that I don't want to give away yet). Many of them are inspired by works from Dougal Dixon and Peter Ward (I attend to give credit to them) but I try to be original as possible. So here's part one of the list which contains engineered species (I might add illustrations if I can figure out how).Engineered human species: created during the later twenty second century for two primary reasons; to fill critical ecological niches so the remaining non-human species can survive (it is desired that they evolve naturally), and to eventually replace civilization should the intelligent humans (who have become divided into two groups called techs and Bios) become extinct. Aquatic humans (homo sapiens maris and homo maris maris): two species that shared a single ancestors. That ancestor resembled porpoise-like merfolk, had intelligence akin to that of dolphins or chimps (both of which became extinct) and had the most engineered adaptations of all the human species. They possess both lungs and gills (which run down the neck and are protected by a row of spines) so they can survive in water and on land for up to four days. They also have algae integrated into their skin on their backs which provide sugars and extra oxygen for when food is scarce and when the water is oxygen poor (respectively). Their tails are paddle shaped and they have and short crest on their heads (to cut through water) that leads to a dorsal ridge that runs down the lower half of the body as well as a small melon located at the forehead. Their teeth resemble that of humans but are modified so they can filter feed and eat larger prey (which consist mostly of jellyfish, squids, and smaller fish which have dominated the oceans of the future. Their forelimbs possess webbed-fingered hands, long nails, and fins along the arms. They also can survive in freshwater in the same manner as bull sharks. They were engineered to take the place of whales, dolphins, and large sharks that died out to due pollution, over hunting, effects of global warming, and so forth. After over 800,000 years they split into two species. One became a more intelligent and human like in appearance (giving up stream-line bodies for intellect and better tool usage) while they other became more cetacean with larger size, flipper-like forelimbs, longer heads and larger melons (giving up intellect for stream-lined bodies and better sonar). Grassland human (homo campus): created to replace the mega fauna of the African plains. These creatures stand roughly eight feet tall (due to being bipedal digitigrades with elongated legs) with black skin and hair that covers the neck, shoulders, and back for protection against the sun (males have most of their faces covered as well). Their heads, which bost long ears for radiating heat, are somewhat elongated compared to human heads in order to contain a full set of large teeth (including wisdom teeth). Because of a diet of mostly grass and other though plants, the teeth replaced in a manner similar to sharks when they become worn out. Their hands have sharp, sectioned callouses that run from the base of the wrist to the top of the pinky finger which are complemented with long, sharp nails. combined, the hands act as a scythe for cutting grass and for self defense. They control the growth of grasses, which have remained unchecked in the absence of large herbivores, and allow the surviving small herbivores to feed on the shorten grasses. What sets them apart from the other engineered human species is that they live the longest. This is because most large primates die at around the age of 50 due to worn out teeth, but the grassland humans don't have this problem since their teeth are constantly replaced. Arboreal human (homo truncatis): resembling a mix between orangutans, humans, and uakaries. Located primarily in South America these creatures are the largest rainforest animals of their time. They're omnivores with large molars for cracking nuts and seeds. They possess enough intelligence to weave baskets that are used for catching fish and utilize simple weapons like chimpanzees can today. woodland human (homo nemorum): This species inhabit the forests of the northern hemisphere (primarily North America) and were intended to take the place of wolves and bears. When first engineered, the woodland species resembled the traditional wolfman with notable primate features such as an opposable big toe which aids in climbing trees but prevents them from walking upright. they also possessed highly acute senses, claw-like nails, fur which covered their entire bodies, and immunity to most natural poisons to increase chances of survival. By the year 802,701, they regained the ability to walk upright (though the big toe is still slightly opposable and the feet in general are proportionally larger than human feet) and increased in variety while remaining reproductively compatible with each other. Each of these varieties have developed their own unique skills and adaptations, depending on their environment. For example, those who live far north are generally larger as most cold weather animals are (the biggest stand 8 feet tall when upright) and those who live by the ocean can hold their breath longer (a trait that separates humans from most other mammals). tundra human and subspecies (homo arcticum, homo arcticum meridiem): The largest of the engineered human species, the tundra humans fill the roles that muskoxen, reindeer, and other ice age mammals once occupied. Resembling the legendary yeti, they range from 3 to 4 meters in height and possess a full coat of white fur as well as thick layer of blubber for insulation. Other adaptations for the cold include large noses to humidifying inhaled air, fur on the soles of their feet and palms of their hands (they can comfortably assume either a bipedal or quadrupedal position in a manner similar to orangutans), and the ability to see wavelengths as low as 320 nm just as modern reindeer can. Though primarily herbivores, feeding on lichens, mosses, and pines, they supplement their diet with carrion and occasionally smaller animals if given the opportunity. When first engineered, they lived all across the arctic circle (by that time it was recovering due to human efforts). By the year 802,701, a few subspecies arose from groups that travels further south. These groups became smaller and developed a more brownish colored fur. Gallisaurs: Originating from an ambitious project during the early twenty-first century, gallisaurs were basically domestic chickens with specific genes activated or repressed in order to give them the appearance of a manoraptorid dinosaur, which is believed to be the ancestor of all modern birds. Emerging from a series of trials and errors, the first successfully produced specimen was considered a great scientific achievement in the field of both genetics and paleontology. In spite of the physical changes in the parents, the offspring of the gen 1 gallisaurs would have been ordinary chickens. However, increased popularity of these engineered marvels led to making permanent changes in the gallisaurs' genome. Most of the body was covered in down feathers which is what most therepods were believed to possess. The forelimbs supported clawed, three fingered hands. The femur was vertical as opposed to horizontal like most birds in order to support an extended tail which was over three times the length of normal chickens. the teeth proved the most difficult to produce but years of persistence resulted in a full set of small, unspecified teeth. When made available to the public, numerous breeds were created all over the world. These breeds ranged from larger meat breeds to fighting breeds with sharp teeth, claws, and high aggression. When humans disappeared, the gallisaurs as a whole proved highly adaptable and were able to survive and diversify (though some breeds fared better than others. Some of the new species the emerged by the year 802,701 included gliding, running, predatory, and even semi-therizinosaurid species. I'll try to get part two as soon as possible. note: I'm not that good a scientific naming yet. |
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| Nanotyranus | May 23 2012, 10:09 AM Post #2 |
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He Who Fails
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Good project, although the abundance of GM humans doesn't seem to me like it would be as likely as modifying pre-existing species, or their preserved DNA. There would probably be questions with the ethics of filling the world with GM humans, which wouldn't be around with a GM dolphin, seal, horse, bird, elephant or whatever else you have in your gene banks, fossils and museum specimens. |
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| Akurian452 | May 23 2012, 12:28 PM Post #3 |
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Adolescent
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@ nanotyranus Their are several reasons for the "abundance of GM humans". I already mentioned two of them but in my novel I explain how it was an act of desperation (I don't want to give any spoilers). Let's just say that the ethics of the future humans is not exactly the same as today, especial since most of them are non-biological (kinda adding a transhumanist touch). Another reasons is that most the remaining species (the amount that became extinct was as severe as the Permian extinction, if not more) were relatively unspecialized so a better option is to let them evolve naturally. If you are implying cloning extinct animals, that is a much more difficult task than it sounds. I'll spare you the details unless you want to hear them. Anyway I'll soon give a list of engineered species. |
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| Nanotyranus | May 23 2012, 01:17 PM Post #4 |
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He Who Fails
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I'm more implying reviving alive-now, extinct-later species. We already have giant gene banks. Also, it'd be easier to engineer a tougher porpoise than a marine human. There can be plenty of GM humans, sure, but I'd reccomend leaving those that weren't needed straight away as GM non-humans. |
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| Akurian452 | May 23 2012, 02:04 PM Post #5 |
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Adolescent
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Let me get the seconded part of the list up and then I'll respond to your last comment. |
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| T.Neo | May 23 2012, 02:52 PM Post #6 |
Translunar injection: TLI
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802 701? That's the year that HG Well's Time Traveller travelled to in The Time Machine. 
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| Akurian452 | May 23 2012, 11:49 PM Post #7 |
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Adolescent
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I know, and there's a reason for that. Just in case other people start slamming me, I'll explain that reason. This is a significant part in the novel I'm working on so you heard it here first ;). The novel plot revolves around 50 people who volunteered for an international cryopreservation experiment. But before they could be woken up, a great disaster strikes humanity around the year 3120 (I won't give that away). Fearing humanities extinction, it was decided to keep the fifty volunteers in cryostasis and hide they in a secure location until the desaster has passed and conditions became favorable again. An AI was put in charge of protecting them and waking them up when the time is right. Taking into account the time it would take for the disaster to setting, as well as the meltdowns of unintended nuclear fusion plants and even the eventual eruption of the Yellowstone volcano, the AI decide that it would be hundreds of thousand of years before the environment became suitable again and it would have to power down in order to remain functional. Since it wasn't given a set date it rummaged through the data that was accessible to it and chose the date 802,701 which is coincidentally the year used in H.G. Wells "The Time Machine". so there you have it. |
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| T.Neo | May 24 2012, 10:24 AM Post #8 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Small nitpick: fusion reactors cannot meltdown, because the conditions needed to sustain the fusion reaction are very exact and if they are disrupted (either by an attempt to shut down or control the fusion reaction, or an accident or error) fusion will stop occuring rather abruptly as in this case it isnot self-sustaining, nor can a runaway reaction occur. Physical damage could occur in the event of a fusion reactor failure, but it would be limited to the reactor hardware and release of radiation would be minimal. |
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| Akurian452 | May 24 2012, 07:35 PM Post #9 |
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Adolescent
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Thanks for the clarification. I was using fusion reactors because I wasn't sure if they would still use nuclear plants in the 3100s. Anyway, I still working on part two of my list but my daily life kinda gets in the way. I'll post it as soon as I can because I'd really like to get feed back from you guys. In the meantime maybe you guys can share what you think would exist by the year 802,701. |
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| Arachnus | May 24 2012, 08:13 PM Post #10 |
Adult
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802,701 is a VERY long time into the future. We would likely appear god-like to our current selves, being able to do things so fantastic now, that they're viewed as magical by us. Like using nanotechnology to turn a rock into a fruit. Or using your special headgear to lift your furniture with your mind, without ever leaving your seat. Medicine could allow us extended lifespans, maybe even the ability to live forever. We wouldn't need to work, being able to get everything you need at the touch of a button, thanks to nanotech. Just like in Star Trek, money would be useless, when you can just ask for something and you'll receive it. We likely won't work either, with robots and AIs doing every laborious task for us. We'd be living in luxury. We'd probably have explored a decent chunk of the Milky Way, and met a few sapients. tl;dr Here's a list of possible future technologies: -nanotechnology (this would pretty much make us god-like) -extended lifespans (maybe even forever with constant repairs to the body) -"telekinesis" -AIs -wormholes -teleportation -transhumans -quantum computers -FTL travel* -time travel There are many, many more, but these are the ones that will probably be most useful to you in your novel. The others are mostly space-related, but I don't think your novel will include a space setting. *Currently it's believe to be impossible to break the light-barrier, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to reach a destination faster than light can. If they're proven to exist, wormholes could prove to be our shortcut to the stars, although they'd require god-like technology to create and manage. |
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| Akurian452 | May 25 2012, 01:13 AM Post #11 |
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Adolescent
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@ Arachnus I do use many of the technologies you mention in my novel and have done a lot of research on them. In fact most of the things you listed, like transhumans, are a core part of my novel which is going to be part of a trilogy. However, the technologically advanced humans in my novel were exterminated around the mid 3100s, so they wouldn't be as god-like as you describe, though fairly close. Besides, if history is any indication, exponential progression is not always continuous. There tend to be periods of stagnation, forming an S shape in exponential charts for illustration. The most recent example of this is transportation. In just a few decades we have gone from horses to carriages to cars to planes and to rockets. People though the increase in speed would continue indefinably and we would reach the stars in no time. The Apollo moon landing was madness at its time (we have more computing power in our Ipads than all of the computers used to monitor the mission) and yet it was accomplish. By the time of space shuttles, however, we realized just how difficult it was to travel through space and therefore space exploration had become stagnated. The same is actually expected to happen to the technological application of Moore's law. By the year 2030, Moore's law would have run its course for silicon circuitry and quantum theory will take over. Quantum computing can be done but it is very difficult. So far the most that has been calculated using quantum computing is 3x5=15. If you learn how quantum computing works you would see how big of an achievement that is. But like I said, the technological humans in my novel (the majority of them anyway ;)) will be close to god-like, but it would have taken them longer that expected. Hopefully my next post will get back on topic of speculative biology. |
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| Forbiddenparadise64 | May 25 2012, 09:54 AM Post #12 |
Adult
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Yeah, the idea of 'deity like powers' is beyond anything really possible. That's why when in the Fallout 3 game, I find the idea of a virtual village impossible as it would require a computer larger than the sun to simulate all the virtual subatomic particles and to get them to work in such a similar way to the real world. People say microchips are getting smaller, but what people don't realise is that there is a limit to it all, the rate at which microchips are getting smaller is decreasing and they will probably reach their limit fairly soon. Quantum computing would offer more, but than that would have major limits. Teleportation technology has also gone far slower and less successfully than predicted by people such as Michio Kaku who thinks one day we will be able to do all sorts of bizzare things like move faster than light with wormholes (despite the fact that A) theres no evidence for them and  if they did exist, they'd act a lot like black holes and be extremely dangerous). Just because our grandparents thought we'd have teleporters and homes on the moon and mars by now does'nt mean it happened. I like the idea present though, and how you've modified several man-after-man creatures along with other animals to live in the world after a major extinction. I remember doing a similar project once. |
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| T.Neo | May 25 2012, 12:33 PM Post #13 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Oh blegh, not those. 
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| Akurian452 | May 25 2012, 01:26 PM Post #14 |
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Adolescent
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So here's part two of the list. They include species whose ancestors were very successful and were found world wide. For convenience, I organized them in groups. Red foxes and their decedents: during the twenty-first century, red foxes were the most geographically spread of the carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere and introduced in other areas such as Australia. They were successful at living along side humans and even thrived amongst them as indicated by larger sized specimens. During the time of humans of 45 subspecies were identified and with the disappearance of humans and large carnivores, the red foxes were perfectly poised to fill many of those niches, though in some areas they face competition from other small carnivores and woodland humans. There are burrowing foxes with short limbs, long claws, and almost worm-like bodies. There are also long-legged, jackal-like foxes that hunt in the desserts and prairies. There are even arboreal foxes whose paws have become perfectly suited for climbing trees. However, the most dramatic evolutionary changes can be seen in the foxes of Australia who faced neither predators nor competitors and had a wide range of food possibilities. As a result, these foxes have grown 50% larger than their mainland relatives and developed stronger jaws, enabling them to hunt medium sized kangaroos. Rock Pigeon varieties: Found in cites world wide, these birds were able to fill most of the voids left by more exotic species. The majority of speciation occurred in rainforests and islands with numerous diversity but the decedents of the humble rock pigeon can be found everywhere and provide food for other predatory species. Some boast brightly colored plumage and patterns similar to the bird-of-paradise. Others have favored camouflage mosaics of greens, browns, yellows, and greys depending on the environment. Others still have long wings for long distance travel, short wings for maneuvering through trees or abandoned flight altogether in isolated areas. These species also vary in beak shape as the Darwin's finches did in order to exploit different food sources. Common Ravens: Another widely distributed bird species, ravens are well know for their intelligence, adaptability and opportunistic behavior. Like pigeons, ravens have experience a good deal of speciation within 800,000 years, including long-beaked ravens that probe the sand and grass for food and flightless ravens who have increased in size and leg length while reduced in wingspan. There are also tropical ravens with exotic coloring and beaks similar to toucans for eating fruits and nuts and large scavenging ravens with feathers absent around the head and thick, hooked beaks for tearing and crushing meat and bone respectively. Though some have developed more carnivorous habits, the full niche of predator was denied to the ravens overall due to the presence of surviving bird of prey species. birds of prey: There were a few species of birds of prey that survived past the human extinction but three stand out from the rest. Those three were golden eagles, peregrine falcons, and barn owls. Several subspecies had emerged from these widespread birds but there has been very little change in their overall morphology except for one thing; they are giants. An abundance of food coupled with little competition and increased oxygen levels allowed these birds of prey to dramatically increase in size. There are barn owls with 6ft wingspans, falcons with 9ft wingspans, and golden eagles with an astonishing 12ft wingspan, capable of bringing down a full grown deer with ease. In many places, these giants are at the top of the food chain and rule their kingdom from the long abandoned skyscrapers which have stood the test of time due to being composed of sturdier material. Rodents: undeniable the most successful of the mammals, rodents have seized the opportunity to diversify and thanks to a high reproductive rate they have evolved into a wide variety of exotic forms. Their are small pollinators with long snouts and tongues for drinking nectar, parasites with hook-like incisors for cutting away fur and skin and latching on to victims as well as a mouth that forms a suction to stay attached to hosts and prevent blood from escaping. Their are also tree dwelling gliders (originally evolved in cities) who avoid predators from below and access the abundance from above, dessert dwelling leapers who travel great distances in search of roots and tubers (which they obtain using long fore claws and incisors, and otter-like swimmers with powerful, webbed hind-feet and paddle-like tails. In spite of the presence of true carnivores, there are a few examples predatory rodents in isolated areas such as islands. An exception to this is a large, arboreal rat in South America. Measuring over 5ft in length, this rat is of the largest predators in South America and at top predator of the canopy, second only to birds of prey. Possessing grasping hands and feet as well as a semi-prehensile tail, this predatory rat is well suited for life in the trees and can remain hidden amongst the branches thanks to its jaguar-like fur pattern. Cockroaches: These were among the first animals to thrive in the absence of humans. Like their ancestors, they have changed very little within 800,000 years with a few exceptions such as a desert dweller with long legs covered in "hairs" to aid in catching precious morning dew. One significant overall change is that they are larger, around 4 to 8 inches, due to the higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere. However, as with all other invertebrates, their physiology prevents them from obtaining truly large sizes and therefore remain rather low on the food chain. Sorry it took so long. I have one more part that I want to post so I'll get that up as soon as I can. |
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| Akurian452 | May 25 2012, 01:32 PM Post #15 |
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Adolescent
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Just a quite followup. I had done some drawings of some of the rodent species I mentioned in my last post and would love to show them to you guys, especially the parasitic rat. Unfortunately I don't know how to post pictures on this thread yet. Maybe someone can help me with that? |
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