Aveta 103
[Action // Voice]
[so... it's been sunny. Or well, much sunnier than last month so far. Cam, like most other reasonable people, has been appreciating this in the ways sie knows how to do so - namely, sitting outside in the sunset. Sie's found hirself a nice spot near the center of town, set up a picnic blanket, and taken a seat there with a few ( Read more... )
[so... it's been sunny. Or well, much sunnier than last month so far. Cam, like most other reasonable people, has been appreciating this in the ways sie knows how to do so - namely, sitting outside in the sunset. Sie's found hirself a nice spot near the center of town, set up a picnic blanket, and taken a seat there with a few ( Read more... )
Humans are part of the order known as primates - which are themselves part of the class referred to as mammals, an endothermic group of quadrupedal creatures, characterized by the presence of hair, mammary glands and three middle ear bones. [Robert pauses there.] While primates have other specific features - such as generally having five digits per limb, well-articulated shoulder joints and an emphasis on vision - I'm not sure how necessary it is for me to detail all of them...
But, at any rate, humans are one of the several sapient species of primate recognized on Terra. [Because other species, such as chimpanzees, are also sapients under Terran definition.] Humans are characterized by a very well-developed brain, even amongst primates, and have enhanced tool-making skills compared to other species, at least on Terra. Adult humans, on average, stand approximately 1.45 to 1.8 metres tall, though there is much variation. There is also some variation in skin tone and hair shade, but most of the humans on Terra tend to be a deeper skin tone - around your own, actually - and with darker hair, like black or brown shades.
Culture is... more complex, though. That varies significantly depending on the multiverse you draw the data from, I'd imagine.
[And in case that wasn't enough tl;dr...]
Yes. Turtles, like other reptiles and some other orders on Terra, rely on external sources of heat to regulate their body temperature. While some creatures simply live in places where the temperature fluctuates little, others are used to surviving over a wider range of possible temperatures. Turtles tend to be in the latter category.
[Also, d'oh, mun realized the correct term is "ectothermic" rather than "exothermic". *facepalm* ]
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Primates, Mammals - classifications of both, okay... they look a little like hir people? But that's odd, sie seems to have a darker tone than most people, and Robert - based on the little picture - has a lighter one too. Sie pauses, chewing on hir pen a moment...
Oh, right! Turtles - Reptiles, heat. This is all like a 101 course and that's off-putting, but sie knows sie's hardly qualified for anything more right now anyway... There's a brief hum before-]
I'm not sure animal classification is so detailed on the World I know. I wonder if some of the people in biological studies were working on such a classification system beforehand but... [...not hir field, sie shouldn't try to speak for it]
Um, in any case - that's correct, professor. It's not common due to cultural differences, but there are instances of children being born between peoples of different tribes or clans. It's become more common since the advent of cities, apparently, but even I have never known any children of two tribes - not directly, anyway. But from the university's survey data I know there are at least a few on campus. It's a bit of a new concept to study cross-cultural interaction in great detail, so most of what I know of multi-tribal children is from specific clans who have committed to the practice as a means of assimilation in the past. For example, in the rain forests of the south pole, the Uvanka Clan is more or less the only group of peoples represented, but their own clan histories talk about other tribes in the region taken into their own. The information is scarce and often and oral history, of course, but... there is a significant indication that even three hundred years ago, the people of that Clan looked distinctly different than they do now, and even among other large clans they have a great deal of variation the likes of which would be unheard of in, say, the Tidereef Clan.
[...]
If I may though, I have some follow-up questions of my own about humans.
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He's working from the perspective of Cameron knowing pretty much nothing about the species - not a deliberately condescending thing, but it might come off that way. At least it's relatively informative?]
Ah, well, the classification system in my world has been in use for several centuries, though it has been highly refined and reorganized since its initial conception, and in many ways is entirely different from how it first began.
[Robert listens with surprise as sie educates him in return. It's nice to know that his guess was more or less correct... a whole planet of sapients of various subspecies is a very fascinating planet indeed.]
So in your world, clans and tribes are the names given to what could be seen as various biological and sociocultural divisions? Almost like ethnic groups... The interbreeding ability suggests that your world's sapients are all closely related, and that much of the aesthetic differences are likely controlled by a relatively small amount of genes, as is the case with humans.
Oh, and... yes, certainly. [Robert smiles eagerly at this.] Please feel free to ask.
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If you don't mind me saying so, based on what I have observed here in Luceti, my own skin tone is dark as compared to many others here, but from casual listening there are a great many humans here- ah, and. "Terra," are all humans from there, or would it be too much to say that humans are on other worlds as well?
-...Do humans own the world? [That one comes out hesitant and quickly all at once, because Gem implied it but that thought it just weird]
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I am... quite pale, for a Terran. [Embarrassingly pale, actually.]
Also... Terra is a very specific multiversion of a planet, generally referred to as "Earth", that seems to be the source for many of the humans here. Not all, I would hasten to add, but many. While my own multiverse has non-Terran humans and related modified hominids - off-planet colonies, for example - that is not true of other multiverses, as far as I have learned.
[That last part disturbs Robert a little. It's a sentiment that seems decidedly pre-Terran.] Perhaps some pre-Terran humans feel that way. Terra was... highly damaged as a result of such a mindset as that...
But humans tend to be a very influential species, and because of their ability to manipulate the environment both constructively and... destructively, they tend to leave an indelible impression in planets that they colonize. Terrans have tried significantly to reduce these environment impacts, because at high levels they endanger the climactic and biological systems of Terra itself, which is an inexcusable state.
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Multiverse? Multiversion? You have been using these terms quite a bit, Professor, though I am not sure I understand quite you you mean beyond, given the context, that is must refer to erm, variations of Worlds?
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The words "multiverse" and "multiversion" are terms deriving from Multiversal Theory, a theory that came into being in Terra rather recently. It refers to the existence of multiple possible universes stemming from the fluxation of events in quantum spacetime.
... In layperson's terms, events have the ability to bud off "separate" universes because of the quantum nature of the formation of universes. My own planet, Terra, is one of many billions of possible variants - and I would say that many of the worlds here are other variants of the same planet, set in their own separate universes.
It is certainly an extremely fascinating thing to see. There are all sorts of tiny variations in the worlds here, and those can certainly add up to major shifts.
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...What?]
I'm sorry Professor, I still don't quite understand. Is that to suggest that a World is like a flower?
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All actions lead to other possible actions, correct? Under Multiversal Theory, all possible actions have their own universes constructed around them, and that leads to many trillions of possible variants of every planet - which I assume explains many of the extremely-similar-but-at-the-same-time-subtly-different arrangements that have arose amongst the people here in Luceti.
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[This voice just cracked. Um.]
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I had thought the Malnosso might be using something similar to bring us here, but I cannot be certain anymore.
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Terra must be a truly fantastic place.
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Ah, speaking of which... I would be glad to show you my nanocomputer one day, Cameron. The Malnosso saw fit to at least let me have that, and while it has no connection to the Terran networks, nonetheless you might find it interesting.
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[Especially data that Robert doesn't want the Malnosso reading.]
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I- yes...! That does sound most impressive, and I would love to see it.
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