May I private message you I'm sick and tired of using chat GPt to help me organize my thoughts on my species and I really want to send you my Google doc I just don't want to post it on my public blog is that okay with you I much rather have a real person who has experience of making speculative biology and evolution then talking to some random AI
Initially I was going to answer this privately but Iāve decided to answer this publicly in case anyone else wants to dig into these kinds of things. And keep in mind that I am just a guy, Iām not an expert, Iām just very interested in general biology and (more specifically) zoology. I never finished college because I became homeless, I donāt have a degree in anything.
Now that thatās out of the way, please do your own research and donāt use chatbots. Theyāre not going to be as helpful as they seem to be. I havenāt actually ever used any of these chatbots but just based on what Iāve seen from the google ai overviews, I can imagine itās great at giving you misinformation.
Google Scholar Iāve found good for looking for studies! I probably should switch search engines eventually but I havenāt gotten around to it.
As well as Google Scholar, I use the shit out of Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia. Iām sure this is known but Wikipedia does credit sources used. Going back to those sources and reading through them and then possibly even doing further reading beyond that is something I do if I find something that piques my interest.
Use the sources provided!
Truth is often stranger than fictionāuse real animals as inspiration or basis for your fictional animals. Hell, donāt just stop at animals, use whatever organisms you find interesting that could work. Organisms in real life break their ārulesā all the time, and itās fantastic. If you want your creature to photosynthesize and your creature is an animal, try looking up āanimals that photosynthesizeā and do further research from there. See how it works! How do they acquire chloroplasts? Are they born with them? Are they acquired from prey or another food source? Maybe not the best example because, as far as I know, the sea slug that photosynthesizes āstealsā DNA from the algae it eats and scientists still donāt fully understand what goes on inside the slug for the algae DNA to integrate, but you can still typically find examples from real life of what it is you want to do.
And if you canāt? Youāre allowed to bullshit. You can bullshit it. Itās okay. If itās horribly wrong later when youāve figured more out, you can always go back and change it. No shame in that.
Youāre also allowed to take inspiration from others! Personally I actually donāt follow any specbio projects, but, honestly, I should, just to see what other people are up to and stimulate my brain a little with that.
The main thing is that you can do it yourself without chatbots, and that itās a lot of fun. I know I joke about āhave fun and be yourselfā as a rule for just about anything, but really, it does apply to so much. Have fun with it, and do what makes you happy. Do what tickles your brain the best. Have fun and be yourself.
(You can dm me, by the way. I just canāt promise that Iāll be too helpful and I certainly cannot promise that my responses will be timely.)