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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.

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SE Census - Favorite Spec Scenario; IT'S THE BIG ONE-O
Topic Started: May 23 2018, 10:39 PM (975 Views)
GlarnBoudin
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LittleLazyLass
May 25 2018, 10:44 PM
Big shock on this one, but I absolutely love the premises of Cornucopia and the Library. An infinite world can have extremely interesting implications, and it makes an open group project far easier to make feasible. Meanwhile, the individual premises throw normal mundane animals into situations with variables so completely alien to earth environments that you end up with stuff unlike that any other scenario could've possibly created. The harvesters, though cheap movie monsters at first glance, are something that opens up so many possibilities when it comes to working around them. Cornucopia works as well as it does because of the presence of them.

The Library takes this a step further makes the whole world itself nothing alike anything anybody else has ever specced with - while at the same there being so mundane and familiar, merely an old-fashioned library. Additionally, both have limited list of entrants, which breeds creativity to work with what you have. Sheatheria hits similar notes, with its varied and limited entrants and bizarre world that creates environments unlike anywhere or anywhen on earth; but I'm much less familiar with it, so I cna't say quite as much.

I know some people just see alternate universe as some lesser form of spec, just trying to cheat its way through the constraints of science, but I am firm when I say it's easily my favorite field of speculative evolution. Speaking of, I've just started a writing a new Cornucopia entry. Stay tuned!
Holy shit, it's.... genuinely heartwarming to see praise like that for my little farm world. Thank you so much!
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Abacaba
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I'm personally fond of the concept of infinite-world projects. I'm not sure if it's really been done justice yet (not to bash on the infinite world projects out there, there have been fantastic ones, but infinity is hard to do justice.) An infinite world where groups rarely go wholly extinct and there's an ever-expanding frontier of life, with more diversity than can possibly be comprehended in the interior, would be quite interesting.

I also like terraformed world projects which introduce limited numbers of species, because they allow for exploring areas and morphologies one couldn't otherwise. Serina is the most notable example, but Uncanny's Dogworld and Lance that Pierced the Stars and IIGS's Punga are both cool too, if younger and so less derived.

Of course, I also like projects which are built from the bottom up using entirely alien physics. I really am hoping more people start making those, there's a lot of untapped potential there.
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Ragnar
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Good evening!

First and foremost, I am inclined to xenobiology projects in which complex multicellular life is in the process of achieving its first large evolutionary leaps, such as terrestrial expansion, evolution of aerial locomotion, endothermy, development of complex social structures, pack hunting, sapience and others. I do not intend to cause confusion, as evolution is by no means a linear progression towards ever-increasing complexity, but the idea that extraterrestrial life is making its first tentative steps, like our ancestors did, right before our very eyes invokes a sense of life on Earth being part of something larger than itself, a sense of pure wonder and awe.

In addition, I prefer future evolution scenarios which concentrate on the Earth's far future (~200 myfn+), as the eventual deterioration of this planet's inner workings will certainly pose a challenging environment for organisms to come, creating ecosystems and sculpting forms unlike anything seen before.

As for alternative evolution, I show preference to projects which centre on the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, as any base organisms subject to the hypothetical scenario have the potential to produce unique descendants.

I do not have much experience on the subject of alternate universes, although a universe with other dimensions or laws of physics seems exceptionally interesting.

Kind Regards,
Ragnar
Edited by Ragnar, Jun 17 2018, 01:44 PM.
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