For this universe that was to be used by other authors, Asimov specified five intelligent extra-solar species:
porpoise-like water-dwellers;
an insect-like species;
snake-like empaths;
small fliers;
block-like high-gravity beings.
This is not how to write original sf. For a start, the five species sound all too familiar. We have read about their like before. Secondly and more importantly, an sf writer has to start with a blank sheet or screen and question every previous premise. My current concern is: how often does unicellular life, which may be abundant on exo-planets, make the transition to multicellular organisms? But even that is just one current question. How does a writer discover an original idea? Anything that I could suggest would not be original.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't recall reading any interesting SF stories showing us "intelligent" insect like species. The "bugs" of RAH's STARSHIP TROOPERS doesn't count.
Frank Herbert, in HELLSTROM'S HIVE, wrote a novel with the interesting, if grotesque, premise of a secret, generations long breeding program designed to gene engineer humans into a species with an insect like hive mind.
I don't believe we have solid evidence, either way, of saying how rare unicellular life is in the galaxy/universe. Till then I prefer to lean in the direction of life being more plentiful than some think.
Ad astra! Sean
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