Prehistoric Inventions
Jan. 21st, 2022 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithPrehistoric inventions abound. Most of these are one-shot gizmos that one genius invented and other people copied, without modification, sometimes for millions of years.
It's not the occasional, isolated super-genius that uplifts a species. It's the ability to produce multiple genii close enough together that they can interact, which is how you get that explosion of innovation as other people try to mimic them at their own level of ability.
I have a flint flake tool on my desk that I found in my yard. It's an ancient super-gizmo. Doesn't look like much until you pick it up and realize that it can be held in several different ways, each activating a different area of the tool with a different use. Kind of like a Swiss Army knife, but with no moving parts. Impressive, and much harder to make than a simple flake.
The non-human species I've seen throw multiple genii? Snow monkeys. Imo invented the sand-free sweet potato and the quick-rice snack. Someone else discovered the use of hot springs. Someone else started riding deer, the first step in domestication. When those sparks start appearing close together, you've got the makings of a species bootstrapping itself from lower to higher levels of sentience. \o/
It's not the occasional, isolated super-genius that uplifts a species. It's the ability to produce multiple genii close enough together that they can interact, which is how you get that explosion of innovation as other people try to mimic them at their own level of ability.
I have a flint flake tool on my desk that I found in my yard. It's an ancient super-gizmo. Doesn't look like much until you pick it up and realize that it can be held in several different ways, each activating a different area of the tool with a different use. Kind of like a Swiss Army knife, but with no moving parts. Impressive, and much harder to make than a simple flake.
The non-human species I've seen throw multiple genii? Snow monkeys. Imo invented the sand-free sweet potato and the quick-rice snack. Someone else discovered the use of hot springs. Someone else started riding deer, the first step in domestication. When those sparks start appearing close together, you've got the makings of a species bootstrapping itself from lower to higher levels of sentience. \o/
Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-21 10:48 pm (UTC)That's so exciting! :D
I'm a big fan of interactive exhibits. People learn more, get more excited, and are less inclined to mess with the delicate stuff.
>>The instant I touched it I felt anchored and deeply connected in time. I got goosebumps and my heart yearned for something I never knew I needed before. It was that day I decided to go to graduate school in Anthropology/Archeology/Linguistics.<<
It's a lot easier to find and interpret things if you have any of the senses like that, and more fun.
Linguistics is among my major interests. I like to make constructed languages. I am basically linguistic SillyPutty -- things stick even when I'm not actually trying to study them.
A bunch of my series are "historic-somewhere" stuff like Fiorenza the Wisewoman (Renaissance Italy) or The Steamsmith (Victorian England). Beneath the Family Tree is on the Serial Poetry page, and that's the prehistoric one.
>>Ravens, squirrels, octopuses, dolphins, and non-human primates -- they're still evolving and learning and it's incredible to watch.<<
Parrots too. Animal sentience is a fascinating field.
I have a bunch of nonhuman characters scattered across various series. Let's see, there's "The Queen of Crows," Rad the squirrel, and most of the cetaceans and cephalopods are in the Aquariana thread of Polychrome Heroics.
I am also watching the few species that are doing better with climate change and human mayhem, or have unusual potential. I think jellyfish are going to make a break for it and a real chance of flipping the biosphere from singular to communal mode. It's rare because the truly communal organisms usually don't evolve until later, and then they need something to smack down the singletons far enough to make a big niche grab. The increasing damage to the ocean is hammering the hell out of the fish, and the jellyfish are expanding rapidly. Go, you mad little bastards, go! :D
On the other branch, carnivorous plants have the Fast Action superpower as a species gift and they use it to obtain nutrients in poor environments. From there it's a very short step to figuring out that they could migrate if the habitat gets too bad. I'm hoping they figure it out. They're vulnerable because of their habitat requirements, but they have the tools to deal with that if they can just figure it out.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-21 10:57 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-21 11:08 pm (UTC)However, occasionally you'll see another version: plants that reach out and grab something, then drag themselves along. Imagine a Venus flytrap closing on a branch or something to drag itself in that direction.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-21 11:21 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-21 11:40 pm (UTC)The ones you want to watch out for are the carnivorous vines, and I don't think Earth has those, yet. The danger there is they tend to be heat-seekers who hunt larger prey at night, asleep. The vines are constrictors like a snake, and can strangle quite large prey. So they don't need to feed very often to thrive.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-22 12:34 am (UTC)https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Cryptobotany
Also, a slime mold not a plant, but:
https://the-future-is-wild.fandom.com/wiki/Slithersucker
If we're talking about species on other planets, are 'plant' and 'animal' the right terms? You might get something wit odd mix-and-match tendencies... or completely different ones.
(I.e Mobile things that fly after the suns to eat radioactive energy, and have a mixture of walled and wallless cells?)