wendy reakes Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 I couldn't find anything to relate to my question, so I'm starting a new post, if that's okay. Please tell me if I should be placing this elsewhere. I'd like to know whether my theory here has any substance.... I saw a programme once, about how earth was formed. It discussed the collision of planets from this solar system and others, which then formed gases and ice etc and that over millions of years the earth was formed from that. Then I remembered another programme, where it said man evolved from the sea. Could someone tell me if it's feasible to state that somewhere within the collision of those planets, DNA from another species in another galaxy, or even from our own solar system, could have collected in the ice that formed Earth, which then began our evolution cycle? It's only for my book, because I have stated that 'The Perfects' evolved this way. I'd be interested in your thoughts. Bear in mind it is a fantasy book, but i do want my theories to be feasible. So if anyone thinks it's downright impossible I'd like to know. CheersWendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qfwfq Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 There has been plenty of conjecture, and there still is debate, about how the first cells on Earth came to be. There are still adherents to the idea that the first cells may have arrived on some meteor. It would more likely have been when already most of the planet was covered in liquid, which presumably was rich in the right basic chemicals, hydrocarbons etc. So I don't see any great problem with using these ideas in this kind of fictional narrative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thank you. That's great. Really appreciate your helpWendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted February 3, 2011 Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 I'd like to know whether my theory here has any substance.... I saw a programme once, about how earth was formed. It discussed the collision of planets from this solar system and others, which then formed gases and ice etc and that over millions of years the earth was formed from that. There’s no legitimate scientific acceptance or support of this idea, nor need for collisions of planets to explain the formation of gas, ice, etc. on Earth and other planets and solar system bodies. The most widely accepted explanation of the formation of stars and planets is the nebular (cloud) hypothesis. Our galaxy is full of clouds of the same molecules found in stars and planets – all that’s necessary for their formation is gravity and a gradual accretion of the pre-planetary cloud into successively larger bodies, the “true” planets (vs a dwarf planet or small solar system body) eventually “sweeping their orbits” clear of dust, gas, and small bodies. Even were two fully formed solar systems to pass through one another, the likelihood of planets colliding is small, because even allowing for the attractive influence of gravity, solar systems are mostly empty space. Another reason to avoid including the idea of colliding planets in your writing is that it’s associated with some very egregious pseudoscience, such as Immanuel Velikovsky’s 1950 book Worlds in Collision, and the classic (you can’t be much more classic than being in the opening song of Rocky Horror :)) but scientifically nonsensical 1951 film When Worlds Collide. Though writing about colliding planets can gain you an immediate following of Velikovsky fans, I don’t think that’s a following most of us want. Could someone tell me if it's feasible to state that somewhere within the collision of those planets, DNA from another species in another galaxy, or even from our own solar system, could have collected in the ice that formed Earth, which then began our evolution cycle? Though neither proven nor disproven, the idea that organisms from other planets or solar systems colonized Earth is interesting, and scientifically credible. It’s known as panspermia. Most panspermia hypotheses propose that microscopic life reached earth in natural bodies ranging in size from dust grains to asteroids. There’s also the fanciful but fun “Gold Garbage Theory”, advanced in the late 1950s by Thomas Gold (better known for a steady state cosmology theory, the theory that petroleum is not formed from buried organic matter but from microorganism deep within the Earth, and very accurate criticism of the Space Shuttle program), which suggests that life on Earth occurred when alien visitors were careless in disposing of their garbage! Good luck with your book, Wendy, and feel free to try some drafts of it out on your fellow hypographers. PS: Don’t conflate the Big Bang with the formation of and origin of life on Earth. The Big Bang is the dominant scientific theory for the origin of the universe, around 13.7 billion years ago. The Sun and Earth appear to have formed from material arising from the Big Bang and several generations of stars about 4.5 billion years ago. Best theory indicates that life on Earth appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, but didn’t become very interesting (ie specialized multicellular) until about 1 billion years ago, animals appearing about 0.6 billion years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Thank you so much...for all that detail and for showing an interest. I have so much going on in my head, it's good to get struck with a dose of reality once in a while. Hope it's okay if I post two relating sections on here for you to look at. I haven't gone into great depth about the DNA theory, but as long as these sections are in any small way feasible I will be happy. .... “Unlike your race, we have not wasted time. We, our people, have increased our life span because we have used our resources of intelligence and wisdom since the beginning.” “The beginning?” “Long before man roamed this earth.” Rhiannon nodded her graceful head. “We were born to this planet when the planet itself was born. Millions of years ago when earth was formed, many planets collided with the gases that formed its structure.” Rhiannon gazed about the room, to her handmaidens and the group who sat listening to her distinct, gently commanding voice. “We believe that we, your people, and the Perfects, were born of DNA from another galaxy. Our DNA structure was within the ice that formed our great oceans and we were born out of the water, where we evolved through time.” A different section and POV.......... “You said you were human.” She looked to each of them circled around her. “Yes. We are not of the animal world, nor are we from another planet. This is our home, where we were born, where we have evolved, where we die.” Jacqui sensed he was speaking at a rate so that she may form a clear picture. It was far from clear. He knew what she was thinking. He saw all her thoughts. “There was a fork in our evolution. Man took one route and we, the Perfects as you call us, took the other. It was a simple break in time, a genetic segregation, a glitch in the cycle of life.” He raised his hand and swept it in a circle into the air. “We are how mother earth intended us to be. You, your people, are the hybrids. You are the deformed.” Your thoughts on the detail within the prose would be most appreciated.Wendyx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modest Posted February 3, 2011 Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 “Long before man roamed this earth.” Rhiannon nodded her graceful head. “We were born to this planet when the planet itself was born. Millions of years ago when earth was formed, many planets collided with the gases that formed its structure.” To reiterate what Craig said, it is certain that the earth formed billions of years ago rather than millions. Some basics as far as genetics and evolution goes... Anatomically modern humans like us have been on earth no more than 200 thousand years. Our ancestors, before that time, start to look somewhat different from modern humans. They were more chimpanzee-like. About 600 thousand years ago your ancestors looked like this: Homo heidelbergensis. By three million years ago our ancestors looked like this: Australopithecus afarensis. Before 15 million years ago our ancestors were not yet great apes. Our ancestors looked more like this, Aegyptopithecus, around 20 million years ago, and looked somewhat like ground moles when the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. Going further back in time, humans are the descendants of reptile-like animals at around 250 million years ago and amphibians at around 350 million years ago. Before that, our ancestors were fish and lived in water. That should give an ok picture of how evolution works. You can think of it in terms like this: You and your first cousin (if you have one) share a common grandparent two generations ago. You and your second cousin share a common great grandparent three generations ago. Dogs and wolves share a common ancestor a few thousand generations ago (about 15,000 years ago I think). You and a mouse are both descended from the same animal (ie you share a common ancestor) that lived on earth 100 million years ago. All life on earth is descended from early forms of bacteria billions of years ago. The tree of life spread out from the very simplest form, as Craig said, some 3.5 - 4 billion years ago. You may know all this, but I got the sense just from the couple paragraphs you posted that it could do to throw it out there. “You said you were human.” She looked to each of them circled around her. “Yes. We are not of the animal world, nor are we from another planet. This is our home, where we were born, where we have evolved, where we die.” The common vernacular difference between humans and animals is technically incorrect. Humans, like other mammals, are animals that evolved on earth. An animal is different, for example, from a plant or a fungus. A human is a type of animal rather than being different from one in the same way that a camaro is a type of car rather than being different from one. ~modest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Blimey! I had no idea of the time scales here. Thank you so much. I'm going to adapt my storyline from millions to trillions and also look at the human/animal thing. Thanks once again. Wendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modest Posted February 3, 2011 Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Probably a typo, but I think you mean billions (the earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old and the universe is roughly 14 billion—both less than a trillion) I'm curious how different/similar the perfects are to humans. Can you, in a detailed way, describe them? ~modest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Yes a typo. Thanks :-) Certainly. There's nothing i like more than talking about my book. Taken from chapter one........... Everyone has heard about them, but not many have actually seen them and no one knows anyone who has. The Perfects they are called. Named by whom? Nobody knows. Where they come from? Nobody knows. Everything heard about them is speculation, passed-on by words of condemnation and intrigue. Legend says they were born from the core of the planet; a production of all the rotted bodies and carnage buried there, fused with the earth to create them, like the creation of mankind from Adam’s rib. Earth their mother. The Perfects are men with no skin. Not ‘visible’ skin; only an impenetrable translucent film, covering muscle, fibre, sinew, arteries, and cartilage. Their veins are molded within the landscape of muscle, pumping the blood and making it look as if the blackness of it is racing around their forms, like charges firing through live wires. The sinews in their necks are taut, synchronizing with the strains of their movements, liaising with their brains and the workings of their bodies, pulling it all together; collaborating with it. At six-feet-six tall, their limbs are long and powerful. Calves and forearms like a giant’s fingers, working and laboring over a task of precision and accuracy. Their hands and feet are weapons, so powerful and manipulative that to confront them would be perilous. Their shoulders, like great mounds, hold a protruding chest, breathing as if a thunderous storm was about to offload onto a daisy swaying peacefully in the breeze. Their backs are like rods of steel, unyielding with no arch to take away their erectness. Their buttocks, tight and pert are rounded above thighs of bulging magnitude. And their manhood’s are tucked into a pouch of skin, protecting it from the day.And above it all, their heads are their guides. A visage of grey, white coloured bone, cover their delicate brains and the flesh of their faces like a gladiator’s helmet. From the skull there branched protrusions, protecting the cartilage of the nose, covering the brow and the cheeks and the chin that pointed outwards, as if to go up against its authority would be to face certain death. Two round holes perforate the molded bone, enabling them to see with their penetrating blackened gaze. And the only flesh, pink and human-like, was the flesh of their ears, like ours, listening and twitching as they respond to cries of distress and torture. The Perfects they are called. Everyone has heard of them but not many have actually seen them. And hardly anyone knows someone who has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted February 3, 2011 Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 “Long before man roamed this earth.” Rhiannon nodded her graceful head.Is this the Rhiannon from the Mabinogion (and the Fleetwood Mac song), or just someone with the old family name? Or do I have to wait for the book and try and figure that out myself? :) Your thoughts on the detail within the prose would be most appreciated.As long as you maintain clear narration - that is, we know the details come from a character, not some omniscient narrator, you can get away with almost any technical inaccuracy. Even an ancient space-faring faerie may not be all that strong on astrophysics, right? Just be sure that if you do have some characters with strong terrestrial science backgrounds, they don't accept whatever the other characters have to say on the subject as gospel. I'm a personal fan of SF where ETs first assumed more advanced in every way than us terrestrials are revealed to be behind us in various areas. Just because your people have solved some engineering challenges we haven't yet, and can flit about the galaxy, doesn't mean their theoretical science is necessarily better than ours, or that they won't envy our i-Phones and worship Jimi Hendrix. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Is this the Rhiannon from the Mabinogion (and the Fleetwood Mac song), or just someone with the old family name? Or do I have to wait for the book and try and figure that out myself? :) No, Rhiannon the Celtic goddess. Take a look at her picture. She links with white horses...white horses on Salisbury etc...it all links up in the book. There's also an Arthurian connection to her. http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTlBg63uVfMDITqdWyZa9lYMbhRc53LV3TEUrwkvsvjjBn3NMNN&t=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy reakes Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 I'm a personal fan of SF where ETs first assumed more advanced in every way than us terrestrials are revealed to be behind us in various areas. Just because your people have solved some engineering challenges we haven't yet, and can flit about the galaxy, doesn't mean their theoretical science is necessarily better than ours, or that they won't envy our i-Phones and worship Jimi Hendrix. :) That's just it. This isn't sci-fi and they don't flit around galaxies in space ships. The Perfects have no technology to seduce them and they have no need for entertainment because their lives are enriched by more natural things. They worship mother earth and they adopt Kudos (people who are true of heart). Have you ever heard of the battle of the bean field? It was in the eighties under Thatcher's rule. The police prevented all the travelers, Pagans etc from getting near Stonehenge for the Solstice. They were peaceful but the police were armed with truncheons and riot shields and destroyed their vehicles/homes. Many of them were injured and most were arrested. They used up every cell in the south of England to accommodate them, but few were charged. It was an atrocity and I'm dedicating my book to them. And I promise I'm not some Glastonbury, Pagan, naturalist nut. I like my tele and my laptop! And naturally there are characters who argue against the principle of the Perfects. It's not a reference book! :-) Thanks for the comments. Appreciate your interest. best wishesWendy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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