Re: "Whoops! It's Earth!"-noodling

In article <WIJeg.1662$ho6.552@trnddc07>, chrono.surfer@xxxxxxxxxxx
says...
"Gerry Quinn" <gerryq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1ee4d72e5b59387e98ae93@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <mipeg.1141$VL2.898@trnddc06>, chrono.surfer@xxxxxxxxxxx
says...

One wonders how an anemone would communicate its thoughts, though. Maybe
give it bioluminescent, or just color-changing, tentacles, and have the
anemones and octopodes share a sort of sign language?

Didn't really think about that. They just talk normally. Anenomes may
have some quasi-psychic abilities.

Different methods of communication available to different creatures could be
useful, plot-wise.
Maybe Octopus has color, sound (add some vocal cords to the siphon), and
gesture; Anemone has color and gesture and direct
nerve-connection/telepathy; Lobster can approximate octopus/anemone gesture
language with his antennae, and has sound (from rubbing bits together like
insects, or maybe part of being terrestrialized was being given lungs and a
vocal tract).

I hadn't really considered how they communicate, but obviously it's
something that could be woven in as need be. My attitude would tend to
be that if the plot needs something to happen, communication method is
one of the things I could call on to fill the gap. Then the story
could be 'backfilled' to incorporate it.

But at this point, I imagine that they have a squeaking and/or clicking
language that may be transcribed nicely into English. In fact, all
intelligent creatures in the region speak it. I would guess that there
are two dialects, one clicky and one squeaky, and every known
intelligent creature understands both and can use at least one.
(Though creatures encountered inland may have a different dialect.)
Large land creatures will need some sort of lung-like system, probably
as a modification to their original gills.

[Region: the known world is a few hundred miles, somewhere on what was
probably the seaboard of the USA. Empire State Building is too cheesy,
and I don't think the geography suits. Somewhere less developed, but
there's undoubtedly a ruined city somewhere.]


ring. Oo! Or both at once! Each polyp could have its own reasonably
complex
set of control ganglia specialized for whatever that particular polyp's
function is, all connected to one or more dedicated 'brain polyps'.

I think that's not really important for the sort of story I am thinking
of. Maybe as background, but harping on the details would just
highlight their implausibility.

Probably so, but I can't help thinking up explanations whenever a cool idea
comes along.
Half the background I come up with for my own stuff will probably never make
it into a story, but I likelike knowing that it's there anyway.

I'm the opposite, I know I can make it up as needed. If there is one
SF writing skill I know I have, it's that of rationalising
technological backgrounds! But I guess it's good to think of these
things because they remind you of what is missing. You don't want a
reader finishing the book and saying "Great story - but wait a minute,
why were they all speaking English, even the lobsters?"

I don't know that book, but the creatures do have distinct strengths.
Though none is completely crippled in any aspect - they are not utterly
specialised. The tactical relevance of their body types isn't that
important, their ancestors just got sucked up into the Modification
Machine like everything else. They don't know what they were used for,
or whether they were even used at all. They don't know who was
fighting, or whether either side won. When the war ended, they were
just left over, and made do as best they could, undergoing a
considerable amount of rapid natural selection over the centuries
(millenia?) that followed.

Doesn't really seem any more implausible than most post-singularity type
scenarios. And nicely side-steps the issue of figuring out why each creature
was uplifted. Perhaps it could tie in to the universe of _Building
Harlequin's Moon_ (probably not, but it seems like the scenario would fit).

I think it's the sort of concept that would require the author to keep
moving rapidly onto some new wonder or horror, before the reader has
time to question the details of the last one...

They might spend some time speculating about their origins around their
equivalent of a campfire, though.

- Gerry Quinn
.

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