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| Holocene and Beyond; it is here | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 10 2017, 02:41 PM (4,928 Views) | |
| Beetleboy | Jan 10 2017, 02:41 PM Post #1 |
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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~ Holocene and Beyond ~ It has begun For 3.8 billion years, there's been life on our planet. A world floating in the cosmos, a blue and brown dot in the vast universe. Elsewhere in our galaxy, tiny organisms were evolving on planets. On some worlds, life had only just appeared, on others it had been busy evolving and populating their landscape for millions of years already. On countless worlds life was going extinct. Birth, death, life, on a cosmic scale, beyond our or any other being's perception – at least for now. And at this point in time, the miracle of life appeared on another world. Earth. This moment, which would lead to the incredible journey of evolution, although it would change this one world, was of no great consequence to the universe as a whole. Life came and went all the time, and on the grand scale of intergalactic life, Earth was a miniscule, insignificant speck of life. But for this rocky, blue planet, life would change everything. As the first vertebrates swam through the primordial seas, 525 million years ago, elsewhere in the universe alien organisms were crafting tools and developing sapience. For Earth, it would be a long time until it would see high levels of intelligence. The closest it would get until humans, elephants, corvids, and cetaceans came along would be certain dinosaurs, but the ones that showed most promise were wiped out in the K-Pg event. Theropods lived on, however, in birds, which would later show signs of semi-sapience. There was a long way to go until then, however. When we reach the Holocene, everything on Earth changed in ways that would affect the future profoundly. From apes using stones to crack nuts, to the usage of fire and refined tool making, eventually those primates using sticks to fish for termites would build civilizations and colonise the surface of the planet. Homo sapiens would become the unexpected conquerer of Earth, wiping out species as it goes, and destroying habitats for its own purposes. *** Cities, like a shining metal forest, grew and spread across the world, pushing back natural habitats like forests and grassland. Almost too late, humans realised the damage they were doing to the world, polluting it, destroying habitats, killing off species, and contributing towards global warming. It was too late to completely halt the climatic change they had caused, but Homo sapiens could change its ways. Reneweable fuels became the norm, slowly but surely. With the population so huge, there was never large amounts of wild spaces, and many animals went extinct in the wild, but lived on in zoos or in frozen genetic material. The world entered a state of space exploration and genetic modification. Pets, which had for a short period become uncommon due to the lack of space, were now 'trending' again, as populations dropped to a more sustainable level. Genetically modification became common worldwide, GM'd species being used for a variety of reasons – some were pets, some were adapted to take care of invasive species, a few were even made purely for the purpose of teaching students. Further into the future, genetic modification became so common-place that the rich could ask for specially-designed, unique animals, and GMing became a sort of art form. Many of our pets were too frail and dependant on us to survive in the wild . . . but with the overwhelming number of GM'd species, many would survive in the future. In the end, humanity killed itself, in a war to end all wars, wiping out their own species. Those who survived where killed off by the bio-engineered viruses, even the Martian people, the virus spreading to them from people fleeing from Earth on evacuee ships. The bombed mega-cities were empty. The once life-filled domes on Mars were empty. The houses and parks were empty . . . But Earth was not. *** Humanity would change the face of the Earth in a way that would be felt for millions of years. It was our pets and companions, the genetically modified organisms, and the urban animals, that would take over where the cities once stood. While some areas still had a large amount of wild animals living in natural places, much of the Earth's land was covered in cities and 'parks' (large wild areas in the city, used for keeping endangered species in, semi-wild). After the extinction of Homo sapiens, the parks and the cities disappeared, forests and plains reclaiming the land. Urban animals and park species were free to conquer the new wild space, before less adaptable pets and GM'd species got there first. But eventually, get there they did, and the world was changed radically, in sometimes surprisingly and bizarre ways. Many pets couldn't survive without humans, and died off, but there were some which survived. Amongst the genetically modified animals, some used their bizarre traits to help them survive, while less adaptable and frail species died off. *** In Chapter I we will look at life during human's reign, from their pets to urban animals. We will look at the surprising habitats humanity will create, from floating 'reef' cities to Martian domes. In Chapter II, we shall explore the legacy that humanity left behind in animal form, from pouched dogs to giant goldfish, bioluminescent mice to raptorfowl, and stranger organisms still . . . *** Welcome to the Holocene and Beyond . . . Contents |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Beetleboy | Jan 10 2017, 02:42 PM Post #2 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Contents Chapter I London - 2120 Urban Pelicans of London Pleistocene Park Fancy Fish Fluorescent Fauna, Part 1: Glowdents Fluorescent Fauna Part 2: Phosphorescent Fowl, Glowing Goldfish, and Dazzling Dart Frogs Reptile Pets - Rainbow Skinks and Pearl Tortoises Introducing the Raptorfowl Wildlife of London - 2125 Life on Europa: A Brief Introduction Vertical Gardens Chinese Pets: Stickymice, Safe-Spiders, and Dragons House Pigs, Unicorns, and Rabbits Chapter II |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| RoyalPsycho | Jan 10 2017, 03:04 PM Post #3 |
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Adolescent
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Looks interesting. |
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| Corecin | Jan 10 2017, 03:15 PM Post #4 |
Prime Specimen
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Can't wait for the first update! I know how much you thought of this, and as I have a similiar concept I'm interested to see what you come up with! One thing, there's another currently active project called Legacy too, that might cause a little confusion. |
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| bloom_boi | Jan 10 2017, 04:33 PM Post #5 |
What The?
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I just came here to have a nice time and honestly I'm just feeling attacked. |
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"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!" | |
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| Corecin | Jan 10 2017, 04:39 PM Post #6 |
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Prime Specimen
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See beetleboy, you're ruining lives. |
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| Beetleboy | Jan 11 2017, 09:53 AM Post #7 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Thank you.
Thanks. I've been working on this pretty much everyday for around 2 months, so there's a lot of stuff prepared.
Dang it. Spend a month trying to think of a good title, only to find that it's already taken. Back to the drawing board, then. What about the Holocene and Beyond? I'm so sorry Komrade for breaking your heart.
Quick, notify the moderators, I'm dangerous and evil and need to be banned!! Update coming soon. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| CaledonianWarrior96 | Jan 11 2017, 11:06 AM Post #8 |
An Awesome Reptile
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Your profile pic broke me |
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Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different
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| Beetleboy | Jan 11 2017, 11:19 AM Post #9 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Chapter I London – 2120 A sleepy, middle class section of London is silent. It is night time, the sky pitch black – there's no chance of seeing any stars with all this light pollution around. This street is completely dark, except for the faint light coming from windows of nearby flats. Some windows have an inverted picture on them, and from the view of the people inside the room, the thin screen shows a changing landscape. These window screens have taken off in many countries, and the production of them has become a booming business. The smart material the screen is made out of adapts the landscape it shows depending on the time of day, showing daylight, nightime, and sunsets and sunrises appropiately. Many of the screens in this flat are cheep ones, nowhere near as realistic as the ones found in other areas of London. In just one flat, people can look out at mountain ranges, oceans, forests, savannas, even outer space and other planets. The solar-powered street lights suddenly flash on, one by one, as somebody walks down the street, coming home from a long day at the office. When he leaves his work, he can ask the building to turn on the heating automatically the next morning, and to lock the doors when he leaves. These kind of smart buildings are common, taking a variety of forms, most of them responding to voice commands. As the man walks home, he is contributing energy. The paving slabs beneath his feet converts the energy from his steps into electricity – this is just one of many ingenious ways of producing power in 2120. A wide combination of different sustainable power sources are used combined to sate the huge city's need for power. As he reaches his house, the man is welcomed home by the voice panel on the side of his door. His house is a smart home, just like the building at his work, responding to his commands. When he goes to work the next day, he will travel on the London ETT, a fast underground rail service, riding on the superconductive maglev trains through the vacuum tubes beneath the streets and houses above. There is zero air resistance in the tunnels, so after been boosted by electric motors, it simply glides along at upwards of 4,000 miles per hour. As it leaves the vacuum tubes to enter a station, energy lost during the slowing process is recaptured and used to accelerate it when it gets going again. The ETT rails are becoming increasingly common in large cities, travelling long distances at high speed, with minimal energy output. The underground ETT train stops at stations that a person from 2016 wouldn't recognise: Subsouth, Neathbank, Downwest, Underfulham. These stations don't just lead directly up to the streets, they are parts of subterranean towns, used to accomadate large populations. Although the concept was originally approved and several such towns were made, nowadays they are normally inhabited by the poor and lower classes, people who don't have much money to spare. The term 'town' is used in a very vague sense here – it is more of a large flat. Nobody really enjoys living in them – the smell of sewage in some areas and the the sewer pipes that crisscross your home make this a place for people who have nowhere else to be. It does, however, house otherwise homeless people, so generally the subterranean towns are a good thing. Above Underfulham and Downwest, above the super-fast ETT trains zooming like caterpillars on steroids through their tubes, there is a surprising world above. London has joined the great revolution that shook the cities of the world post-2100. It was only then that eco-friendly and greener cities became the norm, rather than an unusual sight. The super-tall buildings and flats are covered in vertical gardens and farms, growing fruit, veg, herbs, or just attractive plants. Wide canals and rivers have floating farms on them, protected from marauding birds by holographic hawks projected into the sky just above the farm, sensing movement and swooping realistically at 'prey', scaring them off. |
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| CaledonianWarrior96 | Jan 11 2017, 11:38 AM Post #10 |
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An Awesome Reptile
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That is a really great interpetation of London in the early 22nd century. TV windows, energy-recycling technology, underground towns; those are amazing ideas |
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Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different
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| Beetleboy | Jan 11 2017, 11:39 AM Post #11 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Thank you! New technology and how our cities might look in the 22nd century will pop up again in Chapter I, but the main focus will be pets, GM'd animals and their uses, and urban wildlife. However, I do have a floating marine city planned, if I can work out how it'll work. |
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| CaledonianWarrior96 | Jan 11 2017, 12:03 PM Post #12 |
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An Awesome Reptile
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I know for a fact that some people can make floating islands with their houses on them made up of bags of rubbish (mainly bottles and such). So you can have shantytown-style settlements of these rubbish-floating towns in the future. It definetly appears to be possible in the future |
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Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different
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| Beetleboy | Jan 11 2017, 12:05 PM Post #13 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Chapter I Urban Pelicans of London The London pelicans first arrived in 1664, as a gift from the Russian Ambassador to King Charles II. From there on, they lived in St James Park ('they' referring to the pelicans, not the Ambassador and King Charles II), semi-wild, becoming a popular attraction for their bold nature, fearless of humans and getting close to their visitors. In 2006, it first became clear that the pelicans of St James Park were supplementing their diet of fish given to them by their keepers with feral pigeons, scooping them up in their pouch while they are still alive. Previous unverified claims of pelicans attacking pigeons also included one post-2000 account of one of the individuals catching and eating a duck. After getting the still struggling bird into their pouch, these pelicans would then take water from the pond to either help wash down the large meal whole or drown the still-alive bird.  Pigeons are by no means easy targets, and ducks and other waterfowl with their strong beaks are even harder, using their strong bills to their advantage in an attempt to escape from the pelican's nightmare pouch. Indeed, usually it can be quite hard to keep control of its prey, and with no real way to kill it, the pelican usually either swallows its victim whole and while its still alive, or drowns it by scooping water into its pouch.  Nobody knows exactly when the pelicans escaped from St James Park, but it was certainly after 2020. Already accustomed to humans and the urban habitat, the escapees did well in London, breeding in parks, in the middle of lakes, and eventually even on the tops of buildings amongst the vegetation of roof gardens. The urban pelicans spread and became common across the city, joining other escaped individuals from parks. Their numbers grew, and they became as common a sight as an urban gull. They were opportunistic, part time predators, feeding on scraps, stealing food such as chips and burgers straight out of people's hands, and catching fish and birds. They stalked parks and streets where people regularly fed the pigeons and ducks, luring them out into the open, where the pelicans could scoop them up and kill them. Due to the pelican's large size and bold nature made them something of a public menace. Their habit of occaisonally eating small dogs alive can't have helped their reputation much either. People found them intimidating, and culls were put in place to get pelican numbers under control in London. However, this couldn't hold them back for long, and eventually culls stopped being enacted, as the reluctant conclusion was made that there was no getting rid of the pelicans now. They even acted as a sort of pigeon exterminator, keeping the numbers of these so-called 'pests' in control. Urban pelicans continue to surprise wildlife watchers and scientists with their adaptability and sometimes completely surprising behaviours. Recent studies have shown that some individuals have learnt to use bread as bait to lure fish within striking distance. They also seem to show a certain degree of teamwork, as was so brutally shown in a recent case as a small flock of pelicans landed in the penguin enclosure at London Zoo, and they worked together to kill and eat several penguins. With their adaptability and widespread range across London, it will be interesting to see what becomes of these pelicans after humans die out. |
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| Beetleboy | Jan 11 2017, 12:07 PM Post #14 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Yeah, I saw something about that on TV. My plan was to use this design as my base:  It says somewhere that this design could be made to simply float along with the gulf stream, travelling across ocean with its human inhabitants. I have to say, this idea is of great interest to me, mostly because it sounds like a cool way to live. |
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| Lycaon | Jan 11 2017, 12:15 PM Post #15 |
All hail Odin! All hail the Allfather!
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This cracked me up  Nice idea, but I've one question: how do they keep avian prey from escaping when the pelicans scoop up water to drown said prey? |
The true meaning of hypocrisy
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