Speculative Biology in Science Fiction

Some phenomena in biology will probably never be truly known to humans. For example, scientists will never get to know exactly what the first organism looked like. We will probably never know what it is exactly like to experience life as an animal that isn’t ourselves. Concepts such as this can, however, be predicted through in-depth analysis of available evidence and thorough reasoning. Theoretical biology is so fascinating because it encourages a higher degree of imagination than other areas of scientific research. We can take well-defined biological concepts and apply them to our prediction of the far past and future. Theoretical biology can be applied to eras in which humans didn't exist, and planets other than our own.

When the field of evolutionary biology is combined with speculative zoology, it allows us to envisage populations of animals that we will never get to see. We can imagine new types of body plans, behavioural adaptations, and species interactions. Several scientists, authors, and artists have provided unique perspectives on what the biology of the future will look like. Some examples of outstanding works include The Future is Wild by Victoria Coules (2003) [1], Alien Planet by Wayne Douglas Barlowe (2005) [2], and All Tomorrows by C. M. Koseman (2006) [3]. Critiquing these publications under additional scientific scrutiny can bring forth new insights into what species will arise in a future world affected by rapid climate change, continental drift, and the birth of novel natural selection agents.

The Future is Wild is a documentary miniseries written by Victoria Coules and is based on the book ‘After Man’ by Dougal Dixon. This miniseries envisions Earth millions of years in the future where man is extinct and no longer alters the natural environment. The continents have moved with the shifting of the tectonic plates, forming new landscapes and ecosystems. Man-made agents such as climate change and urbanisation have been selected in favour of common pest animals such as termites and wild boars. Over several million years, these animals have evolved into the creatures that the show centres itself on. With each animal presented in the show, a range of scientists describe its respective niche and evolutionary history. The audience is also given detailed examples of similar modern-day creatures. ‘The Future is Wild’ does not aim to display an accurate prediction of how evolution will shape the fauna of Earth. Instead, it gives one possible outcome of the environmental and evolutionary patterns we are seeing today. The miniseries is split into 3 main eras; 5 million, 100 million, and 200 million years into the future. Some of the most interesting organisms are shown in the latter section, having diverged the furthest biologically from modern-day fauna. One such creature is the megasquid, a descendant of the modern-day squid species. The megasquid is a large terrestrial vertebrate, with a somewhat similar appearance to an elephant. It possesses six trunk-like legs with two smaller frontal tentacle appendages. This piece of theoretical biology does not come without its criticism. Some critics argue that squid are not able to evolve to develop terrestrial locomotion as their bodies are specially adapted to the deep sea. Despite the obvious challenges of not being able to see directly into the future, I believe that The Future is Wild still achieves its primary goal, and is an example of an extremely intelligent and entertaining television series.

While The Future is Wild focuses on the biology of Earth, Alien Planet focuses on the biology of the exoplanet Darwin IV. Life on Earth as we know it is rigidly defined as entities that hold certain attributes, including metabolism, reproduction, and growth. The ‘life’ of other planets, however, could operate entirely differently to that on Earth. Instead of being reliant on water, life on other planets may be reliant on some other liquid medium. This is all speculation, of course. But some speculation is better than none. In creating the universe of Darwin IV, author Wayne Douglas Barlowe assumed some similarity to Earth organisms, assuming the existence of both singular and multiple cellular life forms. Barlowe also created extraterrestrials that had somewhat similar niches and adaptations to the organisms found on Earth. Although Alien Planet is ironically conservative in its predictions, it is still wildly fascinating. The natural history of Earth must be appreciated for all of its glory, but extrapolating evolutionary theories to other planets is so much more interesting than the possible future animals of Earth. Finding evidence of alien life on another planet may arguably be the greatest scientific discovery of humans. So let us imagine a world far in the future, where humans are getting to see the splendour of extraterrestrial life for the first time. One interesting aspect of life on Darwin IV is that some of the main terrestrial apex predators use sonar rather than sight to hunt for prey. Perhaps this type of sensory adaptation could have appeared more often in Earth animals if evolution were to have taken a different path. At the time of its exploration by our robots, Darwin IV no longer has oceans. Rather, the planet possesses a ‘sea’ formed by a matrix of amoeba and other microorganisms. Creatures seven storeys high travel along this amoeba sea, absorbing the surface upon which they walk. The discovery of life on Darwin IV may have given humans a new appreciation for life in general, and our role in the universe.

The last piece of science fiction I wish to discuss is All Tomorrows. If you, the reader, have spent many hours on the science side of YouTube, you have likely heard of this book. Researcher and author Cevdet Mehmet Koseman wrote the book All Tomorrows as a theory of what species man will evolve into with the development of space travel and genetic engineering. Although C. M. Koseman is not formally trained in biological sciences, his predictions about the future of mankind are fascinating, nonetheless. Just because C. M. Koseman is not a biologist in the traditional sense, does not mean that the world he has envisioned will not be realised in some alternate universe. Besides, All Tomorrows discusses scientific concepts such as gene editing, cultural evolution, and artificial intelligence. Before I praise the book any further, I will give a brief summary of some of its highlights. As is common in other works of theoretical evolutionary biology, future humans have heavily altered the Earth’s environment through accelerated climate change. Thousands of years into the future, facing overpopulation and resource depletion, the humans of Earth decide to colonise Mars. After a long period of separation between the two breeding pools, the humans of Mars evolve into the Martians. Martians are similar in appearance to their predecessors, but are taller and thinner due to the low gravity [4]. Modern science says that Martians may be exposed to more radiation per year than Earth humans [5], thus leading to a higher rate of mutations and therefore perhaps higher evolutionary rates than on Earth. After the colonisation of Mars, humans learn to colonise several other planets and galaxies. Through a combination of wars, death, and artificial selection, humans come to speciate into a multitude of forms. Some of these sub-species are highly intelligent, forming their own unique cultures on different planets spanning light-years across the universe. It is difficult to imagine a universe where several species of humans exist. However, all it takes for evolution to occur is a strong natural selection agent, sexual reproduction, and mutation. Perhaps, someday, only our genetically distant descendants will remain extant, unable to comprehend what it meant to be a Homo Sapien.

What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be alive? Theoretical evolutionary biology attempts to answer some of the most challenging questions in science. However, unlike other disciplines, artists, philosophers, and scientists alike can appreciate the creativity that arises when we attempt to understand these concepts. The humans of today will never know for sure what is going to happen in two million years, but we know our atoms will still be present in some form, changing and moving through the universe.