the whole reason why they're so unnerving is BECAUSE there's nothing in them!! because they're unrelentingly liminal and lonely and uncomforting. there shouldn't be a monster guy in there chasing you. you should glimpse other humans (?) from a distance but they walk away before you can close the gap and then they're gone. things should run away from YOU. do u get it
"and there was a MONSTERowooowwohhhh" the monster is isolation and banal beige sameness and uncanny valley architecture. you fool. you rube. you're putting a hat on a hat and the second hat is not only unnecessary but it ruins the first hat!!!!!!! "there's a monster in there" great so now it's just another place for a monster to be. ridiculous
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So I noticed that with a lot of art of Eridians, they come in all sorts of shapes and colours. VERY different shapes and colours. That got me thinking about the evolutionary advantages of that.
Most animals we're familiar with (as in, most animals that most of the population knows about) won't have colour variations quite as dramatic as that, so we might jump to saying it's unrealistic. But it isn't!!! Obviously sexual dimorphism exists, but Eridians are a hermaphroditic species, so they don't really have biological sex. So what Earth animal can we compare Eridians to? What Earth animal can display dramatically different physical variation across individuals of all sexes in a species?
BUGS!!
My beloved bugs.
I'm going to start us off by looking at a very misunderstood bug, the Asian Lady Beetle.
(Continued under break)
I'll just go right ahead and say off the bat that Asian Lady Beetles ARE real ladybugs, they're in the ladybug family. They're invasive to North America but so are countless other ladybugs including the seven-spot, which is often compared to the Asian Lady Beetle as the "good", "real ladybug" antithesis. God I hate bad science communication. Don't trust infographics on the internet. Don't even trust me. Do your own research if you're unsure about something.
Anyway, Asian Lady Beetles, as you can see, have a lot of very dramatic colouration. Infographics will often say you can ID them by an M-shape on their thorax, but that's clearly not true. They come in so many variations that they look like different species entirely.
What's the point of all this variation? It's a mixture of things. Now I'm not a geneticist, but I've done research, but still, please take this with a grain of salt.
Humans also express very different physical characteristics between individuals. This ranges from eye colour to hair colour to skin colour, etc. A lot of that can be linked to our habitat. Humans live all over the world, and developed certain traits to better suit those habitats, while still remaining in the same species.
Asian Lady Beetles also live all over the world. However, insects tend to change due to the physical colour of their habitat as well. A famous example of this is the Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) whose population began to be dominated by grey coloured moths instead of white coloured moths as the habitat around them got overtaken by soot from coal powered cities.
So I think it's safe to assume that perhaps a reason the Asian Lady Beetle has so many colour morphs is that it's changed over time to better suit the habitats it lives in. I would be interested to see what the transference of colour morphs are like from parent to child, but I'm about to graduate and don't have time for undergrad research. Maybe I'll do it on my own.
BACK TO ERIDIANS.
The interesting thing with Eridians is that there's no visible light on Erid. The book doesn't mention Eridians being multi-coloured (at least I don't think it does, correct me if I'm wrong), but I still do think that multi-coloured Eridians are realistic.
This is because they're going to detect physical variances by sonar, and their carapace is oxidized minerals, so I'M NO GEOLOGIST (but I have taken geology) but I think it's safe to say that those minerals could have a variety of colours. Not only that but Eridians can sense density and sound permeability. So that could influence colour too.
In an evolutionary sense, they look like rocks. This is obviously advantageous for camouflage, and something we see in Terran animals too. A lot of bivalves blend in well among rocks, and certain arthropods build shells to resemble rocks, sometimes even FROM rocks like in the case of caddisfly larvae.
Summary. Dramatic physical variation exists on Earth as much as it might on Erid. This is probably in response to the global spread of a species, and traits being selected to suit different habitats. Eridians can't see, but different compositions of mineral carapaces likely present with different colours, and lend Eridians an evolutionary advantage in camouflaging across different biomes of the planet. Even without sight, different minerals will have different physical densities, which can be sensed by Eridians and act as identifying features. Size variation probably could occur in that case too.
Thank you for reading my rant, sorry if I got anything wrong, I didn't really write a draft I just Went.
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I can't believe home depot literally produced a wildly successful science fiction musical and we all just pretend it didn't happen. on one hand yes it had a boring white guy main character but like.... home depot just... Made it? And it had shit ton of box office sales? and no one even talks about this. this is like avatar (2009) all over again
OK so. After a lot of frantic googling I realized this was all a dream. home depot did not in fact produce a wildly successful science fiction musical. I was on allergy meds and took a nap and my brain simply prophesized this. slightly disappointed because I wanted to watch it.
Love the soft, curious moments of them sharing about their own cultures, biology, etc. I do think Rocky would have a field day when Grace explains skin as a very sensitive and permeable organ with lots of stuff packed tight on the surface. Since goosebumps are very tactile, I thought Rocky would enjoy hearing those.
Also, bonus.
Because it is endlessly entertaining to me to consider how deep in the trenches Rocky is.
I need humankind to unknowingly spawn xenophilia kinks across the universe. The energy I'm bringing to the table is the energy of the first human to enthusiastically shake hands with a Vulcan in front of the whole Vulcan delegation.
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Once I finish reading Project Hail Mary (which will be very soon) I'll probably do a longer post on my thoughts on Eridian biology. I know I want to get a physical copy of the book that I can annotate with all the biology bits.
For now though I'll say it makes me happy how similar Eridians are to insects. Which is interesting, because in my opinion, Eridians are K-selected organisms while most insects are r-selected.
Long-winded biology rant under the cut. Nerd shit warning. You've been warned.
(K-selection = long time until reproductive maturity, very few offspring, usually longer parental care, longer lifespans, etc. r-selection = short time until reproductive maturity, many many many offspring, short/no parental care, shorter lifespans. We're K-selected, for example, and frogs are r-selected. A lot of plants are r-selected, but some are K-selected. A big difference is the use of energy in reproduction. r-selected species put more energy into quantity and crank out as many babies as possible in a very short period of time. K-selected species put a lot of energy into producing a few High Quality Offspring over a long period of time. K-selection assumes all/most offspring will survive, r-selection assumes many offspring will die. Simplifying because we don't have time for a biology lesson here).
BUT ANYWAY back to why I attached the quote. Eridians are a closed system for the most part. They keep all their water sealed inside of them where it's heated up to move their limbs and such. Clear out infections. Etc. Insects are also very protective of their water, but it's because they're so small. Because they're so tiny, if they lost as much water as we humans do, they would die super quick. Their volume to surface area ratio is just not good for water loss. So their exoskeletons involve a waxy cuticle layer that prevents water loss, and every single opening on the body can seal fully (they don't breathe through their mouths, but through tiny holes on the abdomen called spiracles. Don't have time to get into it). Things like diatomaceous earth (basically tiny fossils) pierce the waxy cuticle and cause catastrophic water loss, killing the insect. That's why it's such a good natural insecticide.
What I wonder is if Eridians are also vulnerable to that kind of water loss. Obviously they're quite large and don't function like insects, but since they use water to move, I assume losing a bunch of it would be deadly. Their carapaces probably prevent a lot of that, but it has to be a concern. Would pressure loss also have that effect? Changing air pressure might completely bork their ability to move at all.
Once I finish reading Project Hail Mary (which will be very soon) I'll probably do a longer post on my thoughts on Eridian biology. I know I want to get a physical copy of the book that I can annotate with all the biology bits.
For now though I'll say it makes me happy how similar Eridians are to insects. Which is interesting, because in my opinion, Eridians are K-selected organisms while most insects are r-selected.
Long-winded biology rant under the cut. Nerd shit warning. You've been warned.
(K-selection = long time until reproductive maturity, very few offspring, usually longer parental care, longer lifespans, etc. r-selection = short time until reproductive maturity, many many many offspring, short/no parental care, shorter lifespans. We're K-selected, for example, and frogs are r-selected. A lot of plants are r-selected, but some are K-selected. A big difference is the use of energy in reproduction. r-selected species put more energy into quantity and crank out as many babies as possible in a very short period of time. K-selected species put a lot of energy into producing a few High Quality Offspring over a long period of time. K-selection assumes all/most offspring will survive, r-selection assumes many offspring will die. Simplifying because we don't have time for a biology lesson here).
BUT ANYWAY back to why I attached the quote. Eridians are a closed system for the most part. They keep all their water sealed inside of them where it's heated up to move their limbs and such. Clear out infections. Etc. Insects are also very protective of their water, but it's because they're so small. Because they're so tiny, if they lost as much water as we humans do, they would die super quick. Their volume to surface area ratio is just not good for water loss. So their exoskeletons involve a waxy cuticle layer that prevents water loss, and every single opening on the body can seal fully (they don't breathe through their mouths, but through tiny holes on the abdomen called spiracles. Don't have time to get into it). Things like diatomaceous earth (basically tiny fossils) pierce the waxy cuticle and cause catastrophic water loss, killing the insect. That's why it's such a good natural insecticide.
What I wonder is if Eridians are also vulnerable to that kind of water loss. Obviously they're quite large and don't function like insects, but since they use water to move, I assume losing a bunch of it would be deadly. Their carapaces probably prevent a lot of that, but it has to be a concern. Would pressure loss also have that effect? Changing air pressure might completely bork their ability to move at all.
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Omg I love this piece. Grace the hanging man, content with his life but cannot avoid the changes coming; the ship his noose, the rope that binds him to his fate; the blood red stars beside him, Olesya and Yáo the angels haunting him in the background. Eva Stratt, the one who holds it all on her back, the world is literally on her shoulders, the Petrova line on her neck. She will not falter, cannot afford to move, and yet still she glares at us. Eva challenges us, daring us to ask if we could do better, if we could hold her burden for even a fraction of the time.
Eve, the mother of sin, who held the world in her hands and was cursed for not knowing.
Eva, director of the task force, who now holds the world, and still must curse man to save it.
In the end, it always falls on a woman. I could never hate you Eva Stratt
