New series: Crystal Wood

[ysabetwordsmith]

I destroyed the world again! Or rather, caught some characters doing it.  

Crystal Wood is hardcore science horror.  The search for sustainable alternatives to plastic led to transparent wood, and eventually to a plant virus that wipes out most of the wind-pollinated trees, which is to say most of the world's forests.  It was inspired by this article about making transparent wood in a lab.


"Trees of Glass" 12-15-23
Story Date: 2030
Summary: The development of transparent wood turns into a global disaster.
123 lines, Buy It Now = $62

"Ghost Forests" 12-16-23
Story Date: 2031
Summary: Around the world, the forests bleach out and die.
66 lines, Buy It Now = $33

Comments

[see_also_friend]

You always seem so delighted when writing about a new apocalypse...

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

I do, don't I? I guess I'm fascinating by the endless ways things can fuck up.

Also, really glad it's not happening here and now.

Re: *laugh*

[see_also_friend]

A remember you having fun with the 'death math' for DoA.

Re: *laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, that was entertaining, I don't usually do that much hardcore math. I don't have the statistical skills to advance it beyond the early stage though.

Re: *laugh*

[see_also_friend]

You don't have to be a statistician, you just need enough math to make it plausible.

For example, a desingning a non-industrialized society with half the people younger than fifteen or flipping gender ratios from ~1:~1:~0.05 to 1:9:1 in order to facilitate really different gender norms is much more detailed and realistic than what a lot if writers manage, even if the math is rather mor improvisational than anytjing.

Re: *laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> You don't have to be a statistician, you just need enough math to make it plausible. <<

For the opening sequence, yes. But I've taken the math as far as I can. To generate numbers for subsequent years, I'd need progressive statistics -- equations that would tell how many people each year moved from one age group to another.

>> For example, a desingning a non-industrialized society with half the people younger than fifteen <<

That's easy, because you can do it with geometry instead of just numbers. Just pick a pattern, explore its effects on society, and mimic that.

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/references/population-pyramids-by-region

To make that sort of thing complicated, you have do something unusual like adding a third column for an extra sex/gender role.

>> or flipping gender ratios from ~1:~1:~0.05 to 1:9:1 in order to facilitate really different gender norms <<

Admittedly a little trickier.

I had to think about how I wanted the numbers to fall in Daughters of the Apocalypse, not just in the beginning, but to create desired end results. The initial prompt specified a major reversal of social power and demographic representation, so I had to work out not just the what would need to happen but a reasonable explanation for it.

Sometimes you can't get all the numbers you need. When I was setting up Crystal Wood, I wanted to know what percentage of the world's trees were wind-pollinated. Most if not all evergreens are, but from there it gets patchier. However, I was able to determine that most if not all of the dominant tree species in North America, and probably most of the rest of the world, are wind-pollinated. The exceptions seem to be tropical rainforests where it's only popular among emergent or ridge-dwelling trees. So this was a case of "close enough is good enough" -- losing the oaks along would butcher the terrestrial biosphere, before even wiping out all the taiga. :/

>> is much more detailed and realistic than what a lot if writers manage, even if the math is rather mor improvisational than anytjing.<<

True. That's because I write from the core out, and most people write from the surface in. I start with either an idea or a form (those two are interchangeable in order without affecting quality of results), then I do the other one, then I work through the rest in order. I'll latch onto something in a prompt or a science article and think, "And then what happens?" When I'm worldbuilding, I start with the planet or other surface, continents, climate, ecosystems, etc. If I'm riffing a variation of our world, I define the linchpin, like the Grunge or the Glaze, which determines a lot about how that alternate world develops from there.

Re: *laugh*

[see_also_friend]

>>That's easy, because you can do it with geometry instead of just numbers. Just pick a pattern, explore its effects on society, and mimic that.<<

That's what I did the one time I tried something like that.

Though it mostly only applied as people being confused by each other's childrearing norms (like the person from an r-strategy culture being confused by the scarcity of kids in a k-strategy society, while k-strategy folks are confused by the r-strategy person considering it normal/desirable to be a Teen Parent* instead of waiting until 20's/30's or later to reproduce.)

*And teenagers from the r-strategy culture would generally be fairly fluent in most parenting skills, plus there is enough alloparenting that the community basically raises kids jointly, so it's very different than the American idea of a Teen Pregnancy.

>>To make that sort of thing complicated, you have do something unusual like adding a third column for an extra sex/gender role.<<

Put the third gender in between the M and F columns, and center the whole graph. Depending on your preferences either set the columns as:

...M [align right] N [centered] F [align left]...

...or...

...group each age set together in one row, and center the whole graph.

Re: *laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Though it mostly only applied as people being confused by each other's childrearing norms (like the person from an r-strategy culture being confused by the scarcity of kids in a k-strategy society, <<

Yep.

>> while k-strategy folks are confused by the r-strategy person considering it normal/desirable to be a Teen Parent* instead of waiting until 20's/30's or later to reproduce.)<<

K-strategy folks are also appalled that R-strategy people abandon their young ... or eat them.

>>Put the third gender in between the M and F columns, and center the whole graph.<<

Yeah, that's what I'd do.

Re: *laugh*

[see_also_friend]

>>K-strategy folks are also appalled that R-strategy people abandon their young ... or eat them.<<

Well, my bunch were all the same species, and require similar parental investment to humans. But the k/r bit has to do with how many kids a person will make or raise, how many resources are invested per kid, and how much time the parent(s) will spend with each kid.

So my example had:

k society: high-tech, kids are usually raised by career-established middle-aged pairbonded parents with some help from either other relatives or paid help. 'Family' is a bonded pair and their extended family. a bonded pair will usually not have more than two children. Infant and child mortality is fairly low. Parent's major worry is stuff like choosing the right school for their kids.

r society: low tech, kids will usually have strong bonds with a few adults (actual genetic relationships are largely irrelevant compared to social ones), but all the adults and the older children in the community will provide alloparental care (so the kid spends a smaller overall % of time with their parents). 'Family'* is an adult, their True Companions, and various individual genetic/social relations, and community kids are all basically raised as siblings or cousins. Families will usually have as many children as they can support. Infant and child mortality is unfortunately fairly high compared to Western-American norms. Parent's main worry is stuff like 'what if my kid [x misfortune] and dies?'

*Look up Amatakka kinship for a close example.

So no cannibalism, but its obvious why r-society dude assumes a family with only one mentioned kid has suffered a great misfortune, while the k-strategy adults are befuddled by (among other things) older teenagers functioning as autonomous adults, and everyone treating it as normal.

Now if I were doing aliens, I'd do this:

Human: "Stop trying to eat my kid!"
Alien: "Oh c'mon, you're worrying about nothing."
Human: >:[ "Let me rephrase. Stop trying to eat my kid, /and/ get the rest of [your alien species] on board, /or/ I will talk to the other humans and we will mob-attck you."
Alien: [rolls eyes] "You're kidding..."
Human: >:[ >:[ >:[
Alien: "...You're not kidding."
Human: "We consider children to be part of ourselves, and we /hunt in packs/."
Alien: ...
Human: ...
Alien: "...well, [****]"

...or this, with one person slightly more familiar with Those Wacky Humans:

Alien1: "Look, if you want to bond with a human that has younglings, they'll expect to to help raise the younglings. Or at the very least, to keep them from dying."
Alien2: "I am not a human!"
Alien1: "...That doesn't matter."
Alien2: "Our species doesn't raise young!"
Alien1: "That might matter about the raising younglings bit, but not about the keeping them alive bit."
Alien2: "...Can't just toss it down the garbage chute when no one lis looking."
Alien1: "No."
Alien2: "Are you sure?"
Alien1: "Yes. She will become depressed. Also, every human on the space station will try to kill /you/."
Alien2: "...you're joking."
Alien1: "...nope"
Alien2: "[frustrated screaming]"

>>Yeah, that's what I'd do.<<

It seemed like an uncomplicated solution.