| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| The Time Traveller; Jurassic, Pleistocene, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Civil War, Interplanetary War | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Jun 19 2012, 05:42 PM (1,923 Views) | |
| miocenemadness | Jun 19 2012, 05:42 PM Post #1 |
![]()
Adolescent
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Ok, I am still going to continue World of Cryptids, but this novel idea has been stuck in my head. Basically, a group of people (none of their names have been thought of yet) find a time machine. They think it is a joke, so they believe that there will be no harm in typing out a number of years ago or in the future. However, they type in 150,000,000 years ago, thinking nothing will happen, but they go back to that time, and they land in where the Rockies are today. First of all, the Jurassic. The group of people land in the American Midwest, and are confused. However, as they trek from the fern prairie to the forest, they realize that they have time travelled as they see an Ornitholestes, which at first they thought was harmless, but one ends up biting off one person's finger. As they try to get to the time machine, a herd of Diplodocus block their path, along with a male Stegosaurus. At first, they think that they just have to avoid the Stegosaurus, but then a pair of Epanterias change everything. Once the group get in the time machine, the Epanterias begin shaking the time machine, but before they can destroy it, the group is safely back in the present. While most of the people just leave, one of them decides to keep on time travelling, and sets the machine to 10,000 BC. Next, in the Pleistocene, the man journeys through the taiga of Europe, and most of the creatures he encounters are modern day European creatures, e.g. deer, elk, moose, wolves, bears, lynxes, saiga, etc., but he also encounters prehistoric beasts such as the woolly mammoth, Irish elk, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion, and the Neanderthal. As the man encounters a herd of woolly mammoths which is accompanied by a woolly rhino and some elk, the man thinks he is safe, but it becomes a feeding frenzy for cave bears, cave hyenas, cave lions, wolves, grizzly bears, and Neanderthals, so the man retreats to a river where some saiga are also drinking. As soon as he approaches the time machine, a group of Neanderthals begins to pursue him. However, they run away, and the man thinks that they were scared of him, and starts to make fun of the Neanderthals (in a similar way to how Jake in Avatar made fun of the Hammerhead Titanothere), but he realizes that they were scared off by a group of anatomically modern humans, which try to light the time machine, but before they can, the man types in some numbers, not realizing what he is typing, and ends up in Ancient Egypt during a war. In Ancient Egypt, the time machine lands in the middle of an Ancient Egyptian army that is riding camels. They think that he is an intruder, and the Egyptians fight off the time machine (which is obviously bow-and-arrow proof and spear proof). But as they realize that they are unable to fight it, they retreat to the coast to fight. The man then comes out once the Egyptians leave, and wonder where they are going, so he follows them. Then, he realizes that the Egyptians are fighting off Atlanteans (Atlantis exists in this world), and the mermaids (which are like normal mermaids in literature) fight off with stingray barb spears. The man leaves before he gets shot, and as he approaches the mouth of the Nile River to drink, he sees what he thinks is a drowning woman, but once he 'rescues' her, he realizes that it is a mermaid, which somehow can speak English. The man explains to her that he is not going to hurt her, and wants to take her to his time period to marry her, but he knows that she has to live in the water and that it would take too long, so he puts her back in the river. As a sandstorm is about to blow in, he says farewell to the mermaid and runs to the time machine, and decides to go to Ancient Rome next. He then arrives in Italy during the height of the Roman Empire. He walks through a Roman town and sees many exotic creatures (camels, elephants, lions, hyenas, leopards, junglefowl, etc.), but then someone grabs him, as he is mistaken for a Roman gladiator. So, they take him to the Roman Colloseum to fight a Barbary lion, in which our guy wins the fight. Being freed, he soon decides to travel to a more recent event, and he travels to the Civil War. He arrives in Perryville next, and gets to witness the Battle of Perryville. However, some Confederates take him and make him join the Confederacy, and he soon fights against the Union. However, he is about to shoot someone, but realizes that it is one of his great grandfathers, and he stops from shooting him, as he doesn't want to create a time paradox. Then, he retreats to the time machine, and as both armies begin shooting the time machine, the time machine takes the man to the future. As he arrives over 560 million years in the future in the evening, he realizes that the moon isn't out, but also realizes that it is not a new moon. Instead, the moon had been destroyed a few million years earlier. Now, many lifeforms are extinct because the Moon pieces crashed into Earth, and now only a few arthropod-like creatures inhabit Earth, and our guy has to struggle for every breath. However, he is rescued by a spacecraft that is operated by anatomically modern humans (future forms of us, not prehistoric), and they rescue him and take him to a terraformed Europa. As they fly past other planets, our guy realizes that though Mars looks the same as our Mars for the most part, he realizes that there are small spots of green and blue, hinting that Mars was unsuccessfully terraformed. As they approach Europa, he notices that Europa is now an ocean planet with no land, only manmade continents made from metal. The driver tells him about the war that Europa is currently in between with the remaining Martians, which are smaller than modern-day humans as food is scarce. However, later, our guy realizes that there are small people that don't look like Europans or modern-day people, and realizes that they are Martians, and he warns the Europans, and they fight. The Europans win the war, and a giant bomb is designed, and he gets to watch Mars being blown up. There are also some time periods I am considering: World War 2 (Our guy lands in Japan and gets to see the Japanese plan their attack on Pearl Harbor) Milky Way-Andromeda Galaxy Collision (Just as it says; he views it from Titan instead of Earth or Europa though, using a gas mask that the Europans gave to him to breath) Hey guys, I know that this is pretty far fetched, e.g. mermaids that exactly resemble mermaids of literature, etc., but it is just fiction (I'm talking to you especially, Fakey). And I would like to use terror birds somehow without my guy going to the Eocene or Pliocene South America. I was thinking about a terror bird-like bird in the Jurassic, but I realized that birds had only began to evolve in the Jurassic. So would a terror bird-like maniraptoran dinosaur be plausible? (I want some things to be plausible and others I don't care; once again, I am especially talking to you, Fakey) EDIT: I also need to give a special thanks to Mermaids: The Body Found for the idea of stingray barb spears. EDIT: Don't pay attention to any of this, as I have a new better idea for a novel and this time traveller idea is very screwy. Edited by miocenemadness, Jun 29 2012, 01:07 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Replies: | |
|---|---|
| Kamidio | Jun 23 2012, 12:54 PM Post #16 |
![]()
The Game Master of the SSU:NC
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Ah, but the American Civil War is cool because it was the bloodiest in our history. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
| |
![]() |
|
| Canis Lupis | Jun 23 2012, 01:03 PM Post #17 |
![]()
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
![]()
|
The only reason that it's the American war with the most American deaths is because only Americans fought in it. |
![]() |
|
| Kamidio | Jun 23 2012, 01:56 PM Post #18 |
![]()
The Game Master of the SSU:NC
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
My point exactly. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
| |
![]() |
|
| bloom_boi | Jun 23 2012, 02:08 PM Post #19 |
![]()
What The?
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I could be of help with the Spanish Civil War. |
|
"You shall perish, whatever you do! If you are taken with arms in your hands, death! If you beg for mercy, death! Whichever way you turn, right, left, back, forward, up, down, death! You are not merely outside the law, you are outside humanity. Neither age nor sex shall save you and yours. You shall die, but first you shall taste the agony of your wife, your sister, your sons and daughters, even those in the cradle! Before your eyes the wounded man shall be taken out of the ambulance and hacked with bayonets or knocked down with the butt end of a rifle. He shall be dragged living by his broken leg or bleeding arm and flung like a suffering, groaning bundle of refuse into the gutter. Death! Death! Death!" | |
![]() |
|
| T.Neo | Jun 23 2012, 02:20 PM Post #20 |
![]()
Translunar injection: TLI
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Surely there are more plausible injuries that could result from a small dinosaur attack. What did this person do, stick their finger in the animal's mouth? And why did a ~15 kilogram creature attack rather than flee? Plus, usually when humans get fingers, arms or heads bitten off, they start bleeding. What did the time travellers do about the bite victim's loss of blood?
They seem to be encountering a lot of animals. Usually animals are fairly scarce, and you won't find many unless you're traversing a wide area or you're looking on purpose.
Why? Why are they trying to destroy it? What did the time machine ever do to them?
Why Europe? I thought you said they were in or near the Rocky Mountains. Does the time machine randomly pick places to go to when a time period is selected? What if it randomly selects a place that turns out to be a kilometers-deep ocean? Does it just sink into the abyss? What if it randomly selects a point out in space? Is the machine just marooned in the vacuum forever?
How long does he stay in Pleistocene Europe? That sounds like a lot of animals to see in a single day (just ask anyone who's been out game watching in the Kruger Park). Did he bring food, water, or proper clothing to sustain himself? What if he thought the time machine was going to land in a desert, but it randomly selected ice age Europe instead? Wouldn't he die of hypothermia? And why do you call the Neanderthals "beasts"? I don't think that's very nice. Some of my best friends are Neanderthals.
Predators don't usually mindlessly attack large groups of prey animals at random. Such "feeding frenzies" are at odds with actual predator behaviour, not to mention the fact that they'd be ecologically unsustainable.
Why? They're like the Epanterias... why do they hate this poor machine so much?
So I assume that the time machine does select an area randomly? Why does it select ancient Egypt? Why not, say, somewhere more interesting like New Zealand?
As others have already mentioned, this is an anachronism.
Are you sure? Have you ever tested spears and arrows against a time machine?
So this is some kind of alternate universe? Where is Atlantis located? How does its existence fit in with currently accepted knowledge of geography and tectonics?
Mermaids are pretty implausible. What is their reason for existing? Maybe they've been genetically engineered by an advanced alien race? Perhaps the same race created the time machine? Perhaps, if that's the case, then the protagonist could visit the aliens and ask them why it lands randomly in various places around the world when it time travels? And perhaps they could also answer the question of why various different creatures and peoples across millions of years of history wish to destroy it for no obvious reason?
Why stingray barb spears? Why not normal spears, like the ones the Neanderthals were using thousands of years beforehand?
How is that possible? At this point in history, modern English doesn't even exist yet, and likely won't exist in any recongnisable form for thousands of years.
Wow, that's sudden! Is it right for me to assume that this guy has some kind of mermaid fetish?
So after that lengthy romantic adventure, he just drops everything? How does the mermaid feel about it? Do we ever even hear her opinion? Was he just going to stuff her in a bag and take her home to hold her captive for the rest of her life? Is this guy some kind of prisoner-fetish mermaid rapist, or something?
So he can choose where he wants to go to? Why didn't you mention this earlier? And why hasn't he gone to New Zealand?
I didn't know that there were towns in ancient Rome that were taken up entirely by menageries...
Why is he mistaken for a Gladiator, of all things? Why isn't he mistaken for something a little more mundane, like a slave, or a foreigner, or a really butch Roman woman, or, I don't know, a time traveller, since he's presumably wearing clothing that is totally anachronistic to the era, speaking a totally unknown language, and likely generally being weird?
Oh no... why the Civil War. The Civil War is a boring topic. Rather focus on a more interesting period of time during which bunches of people were trying to kill eachother. Like the Anglo-Boer war. Or the protagonist could go to New Zealand.
Well, that's fairly obvious. The Moon isn't a lightbulb, it's a roughly 3000 kilometer wide chunk of rock.
Destroyed by what? "Nuclear excavations" for "Lunar Leisure Living"?
This is starting to sound oddly familiar to me. I assume that the protagonist looks like a young Peter Weyland?
Ok, three problems: 1. "Flying past other planets" doesn't work like in Star Wars. If you were on your way to Europa, you would not necessarily be any closer to Mars than Earth is right now- in fact, you might be a good deal further away. Planets usually appear as starlike dots, unless you're quite close to them (and odds are, if you're close to a planet, you're either leaving its vicinity or arriving in it. 2. Usually the "green and blue" bit is the final stage in successful terraforming. 3. Mars is easier to terraform than Europa (larger, gases to create air locked up in the crust and ice caps, not bathed in deadly Jovian radiation, will actually have land once terraforming is complete). So why did the fail with Mars and succeed with Europa? That's like trying to build a Boeing 747 out of 747 parts, and a 737 out of soap, and succeeding only with the 737 made of soap.
Food is scarce for many modern-day humans. Strangely, this does not mean that starving people are smaller (just that they're usually gaunt and sometimes on the verge of death).
So they can blow up an entire planet, but they can't successfully terraform Mars? Sounds fishy to me.
You do realise that Titan is horribly cold, right? You'd need much more than a gas mask to survive there. Plus, the atmosphere is opaque, so you can't see stars through it- you can't even see Saturn or the sun.
There is no such thing as "just fiction". If things were "just fiction", I could write a romance novel where humans have three eyes and ride to work on flying pigs, and expect people to believe that reality is actually like that. Only include fantastical elements as is absolutely needed (though the definition of "absolutely needed" can vary wildly, so there's a lot of freedom here).
Why not just go to Pliocene South America? It's an awesome time period for an awesome continent. And Sir Weyland could get to see glyptodonts. Who would want to miss that? Edited by T.Neo, Jun 23 2012, 02:22 PM.
|
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
![]() |
|
| Kamidio | Jun 23 2012, 03:44 PM Post #21 |
![]()
The Game Master of the SSU:NC
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
This is why I love reading T. Neo's posts. It makes him seem like an ass, but he words it in such a way that it makes it not his fault. Clearly, it is the fault of the person he is critiquing. Neo, never stop winning. Keep at it, for you are the best people on SE. Edited by Kamidio, Jun 23 2012, 03:45 PM.
|
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
| |
![]() |
|
| seascorpion | Jun 24 2012, 03:44 AM Post #22 |
|
Why Can't I Hold All These Mongols?
![]()
|
Wait, as far as civil wars go, you can't go past the An Lushan rebellion. It's almost never done (at least in western literature) and it happens to be one of the larger conflicts in human history, the evidence suggests that more than ten million died (the larger estimates are at around thirty million deaths). In fact, I think doing something with China is a must, you have thousands of years of political intrigue, several brutal wars, assassinations and events that resemble game of thrones. Plus there are some great 'villains' you could have , Zhao Gao chasing someone through space and time? Fuck Yeah! I'd also like to see them end up now, but with the Sentinelese (look them up, their an uncontacted tribe in the andaman islands who have been in isolation for around 60-50 000 years). Or they could be there when the first aboriginals reach Australia (and hence see Sahul or Sunda), or when people first cross into the Americas. Or they could invent metal-working Or as T.Neo said, New Zealand would be awesome. And there's always the Indus valley people as well. Some of the first cities in the middle-east would be great places to go. You know what, fuck Miocene (no offense), I 'll do this, what are everyone's suggestions for plot, characters and places? |
![]() |
|
| Kamidio | Jun 24 2012, 03:52 AM Post #23 |
![]()
The Game Master of the SSU:NC
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
ROW ROW. A visit to the far future where everything is derived from drills. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
| |
![]() |
|
| T.Neo | Jun 24 2012, 08:43 AM Post #24 |
![]()
Translunar injection: TLI
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Let's refrain from using such language in regards to people, please. I know you meant no offence but there is a wide range of more appropriate terms you could have used in this instance. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
![]() |
|
| dialforthedevil | Jun 24 2012, 08:58 AM Post #25 |
![]()
Frumentarii Administrator
![]()
|
And thus the T. Neo treatment is here! Good critique there sir, you ever thought of going into Law one day?
|
|
Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/ ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/ Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!) | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jun 24 2012, 06:55 PM Post #26 |
![]() ![]()
|
Not quite, the Tsar had already abdicated months before the war started. The war itself as between the Bolsheviks and Whites. The Whites were a very mixed bag. Some monarchists, but most were just opposed to the Bolsheviks. Many, many of them were socialists. That's probably why they lost. The Reds were united with a goal and a future, all the whites had was that they didn't want that future. The war was huge, it involved dozens wars of independence, both failed and successful, foreign intervention from the Finnish Kinship wars to the Japanese intervention in Siberia and more revolutions and uprisings than you can shake a stick at. Franco was never really Fascist, though that doesn't mean he was very nice either. The Republicans were increasingly were doing whatever Stalin and spend half the war crushing anarchist communes. And Spain joining the Axis would not have resulted in an Axis victory. The Civil War ended months before WWII, Franco knew Spain was spent at that point. Stalin was calling for an invasion of Spain when all they did was give the Axis intelligence and let Spaniards join the Waffen SS, if they joined the war they would have been buggered. Not by a long shot. The British Empire ruled a quarter of the world by 1914. 1815 to 1914 is known as the imperial century, we went from strength to strength after the revolt. Sure we would have probably been stronger without the betrayal, but the empire was far from over. Frankly I'd choose to go to the Rhodesian Bush War for two reasons. 1. It's interesting 2. It's recent enough to remind me that war is really fucking nasty, real people get killed in them and I really ought not be visiting such terrible things. 3. Might get to stab Mugabe. I'm going to stand up for the American Civil War. It is interesting, just overdone. As for underdone big Civil Wars, at least in English, what about the Thirty Years War? It was massive conflict that spanned the whole of Europe and involved so many factions it makes your head spin. The Taipang Rebellion is also good. Middle of the 19th century, a guy in Southern China decides he is Jesus's Bro and has a massive cult form around him. It took a European style army created by American mercenary Frederick Townsend Ward, and lead by Chinese Gordon, former governor of Sudan who wiped out slavery there. Gordon incidentally was later killed in Sudan, fighting another messianic loonie, only this one thought he was the Mahdi. Anyway. I'd really like to see what Britain was like after the Romans left and before the Saxons arrived. That's what I'd go see. Oh and to avoid worrying about paradoxes have each visit create an alternate future, but the machine can only come back to out present. So you could go back and give King Harold some goggles and he still would die in the "real" world. |
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| Canis Lupis | Jun 24 2012, 07:35 PM Post #27 |
![]()
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
![]()
|
I knew I'd get some history wrong. That's what I get for not having a Wikipedia page open as I typed that stuff. On the topic of places we'd go if we could time travel, my top ten time periods/moments in history based on what I would like to see, not what I would like to change (if I ever could change history, I'm not sure if I would. Even if it was guaranteed that I could kill Hitler. His next-in-line might have been a much more competent leader and general. Might have killed more races than Hitler could even dream of), with the one I want to see the most on top:
|
![]() |
|
| Kamidio | Jun 24 2012, 07:52 PM Post #28 |
![]()
The Game Master of the SSU:NC
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
the World's Fair (forget the year) when Thomas Edison first showed off the light bulb THOMAS EDISON WAS A BAD MAN. |
SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
| |
![]() |
|
| dialforthedevil | Jun 24 2012, 11:04 PM Post #29 |
![]()
Frumentarii Administrator
![]()
|
-The Parties celebrating the end of WW2 -The Millenium (I can sort of remember it) - Witness the first encounter between Mesoamericans and Europeans Generally I would just like to explore ancient cities, the stranger and more alien the better. |
|
Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/ ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/ Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!) | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jun 25 2012, 01:55 AM Post #30 |
![]() ![]()
|
First Millennium, go have a party with some Anglo-Saxon monks. |
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Café Cosmique · Next Topic » |














Good critique there sir, you ever thought of going into Law one day?



9:27 AM Jul 11