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Cosmopolitan Planets
Topic Started: Dec 19 2013, 06:32 AM (164 Views)
Cyrus Theedishman
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Do not asking *silly* questions about Heatmor. It makes Orz *frumple* so much.
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In science fiction, the theme of many kinds of sophonts of varying morphological and physiological difference living together in the same population center has been explored in at least Star Wars and Men in Black. The latter is most important here because that series of movies is all about this very concept.

Say, at some point in the distant future, humans and two other alien species agree to a joint colonization project on a habitable world in a distant solar system. If the three species were to integrate successfully, the challenge here is to create the infrastructural and ergonomic systems that will accommodate the anatomy and physiology of all three species. Humans obviously know what suits them. However, of the two other species, species A slithers swiftly like a snake, has compound eyes that give them only a rather pixelated view of the world, but have excellent hearing, and has a single manipulator at the end of the tail. Species B has a gait and moves in a sidestepping fashion like a crab, though it can see clearly on both sides of its body -- and having excellent eyesight that sees the number of colors a mantis shrimp does, but as far as hearing goes, it is only limited to feeling vibrations, and communicates through gestures and changing color.

Another issue that will arise from trying to integrate these three species will be figuring out how these creatures will perceive one another and socialize with one another, given that they all have their own repertoire of senses. One thing is for certain, a society that will integrate completely different beings will have to be based on the principles of equality and social justice.

Could a team of engineers, city planners, and sociologists from all three species eventually come up with a solution to this complex equation? Or will they take the easy way out of all of this and instead have the three species segregated in their own population centers on this planet they plan on colonizing?

Discuss.
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Flisch
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Cyrus Theedishman
Dec 19 2013, 06:32 AM
Another issue that will arise from trying to integrate these three species will be figuring out how these creatures will perceive one another and socialize with one another, given that they all have their own repertoire of senses. One thing is for certain, a society that will integrate completely different beings will have to be based on the principles of equality and social justice.
This is actually exactly the reason why in my sci-fi settings the aliens are "socially compatible" with each other. That means, they have similar senses and live in similar planetary environments, especially regarding pressure, gravity and atmospheric composition.

Is it realistic? Hell no, but if I want a sci-fi setting with aliens what's the point in making it so that they can't interact with humans in a meaningful way?
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Citrakayah
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Hmm... well, you'd definitely want handicap accessible doors, since those would allow Species A to simply tap them with the tail. And public broadcast systems would require what would basically be tiny earthquake generators.

That's all I have at eleven at night.
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Flisch
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Also, you might want to avoid stairs for the serpentine aliens.
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Citrakayah
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Depends on how large they are and how large the steps are. A suitably large, agile serpentine creature could probably deal with normal human steps, though they'd probably be more comfortable on ramps.

Also you'd need really wide doors, I think, for the crab-like species.
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Flisch
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It's not about being able to deal with it. It's about comfort.
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Citrakayah
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Okay. I think that signs would have to be structured differently, to account for the eyesight difference. Perhaps each would be a noticeably different color in addition to having a message? Does the serpentine vision inhibit reading?
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