Comments on: Mostly Modern Tales Guest Week

By: WJS

WJS — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 14:09:52 +0000

With the kind of nonsense they got up to, it’s frankly terrifying that so many people think that Star Trek is realistic.

By: BMunro

BMunro — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 04:43:42 +0000

And another scientific nitpick: you can’t be genetically identical to your dad, since you only get half of your genes from him. (If you _are_, then you are his clone).

Although I suppose Narbon could have gone back in time twice and been _both_ Dave’s mother and father. (Ew).

By: Sailorleo

Sailorleo — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 07:46:29 +0000

In reply to John Campbell (jcampbel). The Star Trek example wasn't actually a seeder-race, it was genetic engineering of native life forms. The real problem with the episode was the idea of a holographic video and audio buried in fragments of the various species' altered DNA.

By: Darkstarr

Darkstarr — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 01:08:52 +0000

In reply to Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity).

So if you mouse with your right hand, does that mean that you only gerbil with the left? -_^

(I am SO going to get in trouble for that comment…)

By: Adam Underfoot (unnatural20)

Adam Underfoot (unnatural20) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:36 +0000

That is an awesome costume, Kaesa.

By: Kaesa Aurelia (kaesa)

Kaesa Aurelia (kaesa) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:35 +0000

I once dressed up as a giant tardigrade for Halloween. …well, okay, I was meant to be a regular tardigrade but, being visible by the naked eye, I was a giant tardigrade by default. I won first prize in an invertebrate costume contest! And now I own what appears, to the uninitiated, to be a really spiky eight-legged fursuit made of brown felt. <http://photos-g.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v49/129/15/41602417/n41602417_30353678_2202.jpg>

By: Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson)

Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:34 +0000

Jason’s drawings of things prehistoric are always awesome! (http://www.girlamatic.com//comics/thestiff.php?view=archive&chapter=13412&name=thestiff)

And his artwork for The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is just incredible!! (http://www.sonic.net/~jason/dream/)

Last year I tweaked my art teacher by reviewing Jason’s work instead of the assigned inferior scribblings of some dead French alcoholic who drew like a stoned chimp.

By: John Campbell (jcampbel)

John Campbell (jcampbel) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:33 +0000

The seeder race thing explains nothing. Because evolution is not a predefined pathway with clearly labelled directions, but an adaptive process where random changes have differential survival rates depending on their suitabilty to their environment, it's astonishingly unlikely that the process will end up in the same place twice, even given the same starting point and conditions... and the seeder race thing only gives the starting point, not the conditions. Positing a seeder race is an explanation of how all these planets ended up with life on them; it's not an explanation of how it all ended up looking like humans with rubber ears.

And even the bad logic of the predetermined pathway breaks when faced with Spock, who has a radically different biochemistry (green blood!) than a human. Even if Vulcan evolution started in the same place as human evolution, it clearly went in a totally different direction somewhere before the evolution of vertebrates, so it makes no sense for it to have ended up in the same place.

And don't even get me started on the idea that Spock is the result of interbreeding between one of those green-blooded Vulcans and a human. It makes about as much sense as expecting offspring from gettin' it on with a lobster.

Also, I'd argue that Dave isn't de-evolving at all. Given his habits, shifting his metabolism from oxygen-based to cigarette smoke-based may actually be making him more suited to survive in his environment.

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:32 +0000

PS: Tardigrades don’t have claws either, but I suppose that could be an adjustment to the “giant” part. (See Haldane’s “On Being the Right Size”, http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html)

Also, Helen’s “fins” are remarkably dextrous for something that barely learned to pull itself across dry land…. 😉

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:53:31 +0000

Yeah, but it's less interesting if everyone (at least the humans) turn into 3-foot tall ur-apes (think Lucy), and thence into squirreloids.

It might be nice to see what the alien crewmembers evolved from, but IIRC Star Trek already invoked a seeder-race to explain their Humanoid Universe.