Friday, May 26, 2023

Alien Sandscape

I can't help but think there's a SF story in this one.

It's Lake Michigan, if you're wondering

Biomes separated by shade and light exposure? Of course if you want to scale it up to planetary size you'd have to dream up some physics to support those overhangs. Low grav planet probably. Does igneous stone shear off more or less than sedimentary? Maybe a Hadean low-grav planet? But then you'd also have to justify that large-scale erosion. Acid flows? And what should I translate the ice/sand mix into? Guess ice can stay ice. Ice ice babies? Ice babies vs. cave babies at war? At first contact? Might play nicely into the dark/light contrast. Maybe the sheltered zones should be warmer than the icy surface? Oooooh, I like that: hot Archean low-grav planet bleeding heat into space, Hadean flows freshly eroded, sparse ecosystems, fudge the selective pressures a bit for multicellular life (sulfur atmosphere instead of oxygen? may be an unnecessary stretch metabolically) heat comes from below, cold light vs. warm cozy darkness, maybe cold intellectual light vs. warm cozy primitivist darkness, should humans come in? Representing what? Juxtaposed to what? Maybe preternaturally fast invaders due to more efficient oxygen metabolism? And strong due to Earth grav being stronger?

I'm sorry, when did I start brainstorming?
Well, whatever comes of this, it can't turn out worse than Deliver.

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