/ärt wen zirō THrē/

Reading #3 -- Artifacts

4 May 2022

Q1. 1. The understanding of dinosaurs has drastically evolved over the years. Originally, dinosaurs were portrayed as, ”big, dumb, cold-blooded reptiles,” who were often drawn lounging in swamps or trudging their hefty bodies across the landscape. However, with more discoveries, more fact based ideas would come from how dinosaurs looked and acted. Despite these new discoveries, there were still many similarities all dinosaur drawings had; they were muscular and with little decoration or fat. It wasn’t until even more discoveries were made that paleoartist began to freely speculate as to the appearance of these historic creatures. Fat, color, humps, and the controversial feathers were added to new drawings which opened the door for dinosaur physical consideration.

A drawing by John Conway from the book All Yesterdays.

Q2. A similar field in science would be topics in Astronomy. Our space travel is very limited, and therefore is a lot of speculation on certain things. For example, we have visited a handful of planets, such as the Moon, and have only robotically visited others like Mars and Jupiter. Despite this, scientist are able to speculate what many other planets look like regardless of ever visiting or even having satellite photographs. For example, the painting below is someones rendition of what the surface of Pluto might look like. And similarly is a diagram that shows what the plants anatomy might be. Science provides reason to believe that certain things look and work in a certain way.

An artist rendition of what the surface of Pluto might look like.

Q3. Material speculation is using exisitng objects that exist to make assumptions about things that may not have a physical form. This could be because we either can't see it, access it, or it doesn't exist anymore.

Q4. ↓

Culture

Alyssa's Supposition: What if we still lived on Pangea?

• Alyssa’s Speculation: The world would live as one collective society. However, like in the US, where the geography and therefore the people are very different, it would be an unstable nation.

• Deanna’s Speculation: It could either go really well or horribly work. I’m thinking either Animal Crossing or Lord Of the Flies.

• Hue’s Speculation Large scale wars will occur for the acquisition of the land of pangea.

Deanna’s Supposition: A world where each culture celebrates a holiday where everyone walks on stilts and collects fruit for a day

• Alyssa's Supposition: Alyssa’s Speculation: That the world would be a happier place :)

• Deanna’s Speculation: It might be fun to try a silly activity.

• Hue’s Speculation Many people may get hurt falling from stilts. Likely injuries from those not being able to navigate using stilts. Therefore, there will be a lot of hospital visits and poverty rates may rise.

Hue’s Supposition: In a world where society is ran exactly like the universe of Franz Kafka

• Alyssa's Supposition: That would be terrifying. Random people would spontaneously be turning into insects :(

• Deanna’s Speculation: The world would be more terrifying and tragic

• Hue’s Speculation A lot of confusion, absolute dystopia. Calling places using your dead parent’s telephone. Lots of fear, despair, and yearning. Clocks move backwards.

• Possible Artifacts for Hue's Spec: A giant mummified/fossilized beetle, A clock that can only move backwards, maybe the numbers are mismatched.

Lifeform

Alyssa’s Supposition: What if humans were cold blooded?

• Alyssa’s Speculation: We would live more like the cold blooded creatures on the planet. Also, if we were able to still be as sophisticated as we are today, space travel might be a lot easier and feasible.

• Deanna’s Speculation: Our way of living would be different, like perhaps what we would eat and what environment we would live in as well as what climates would be considered preferable.

• Hue’s Speculation We will have shorter lifespans as we’ll need to sustain ourselves by siphoning energy for external sources (become ectothermic.)

Deanna’s Supposition: A world where humans are cyborgs and their torsos were mini fridges

• Alyssa’s Speculation: We would be able to survive in different situations and places much easier, because holding onto and storing food that we need to survive would be much more accessible.

• Possible artifacts for Alyssa's Spec: A fridge torso with random rotting stuff, Complex central processing unitDie The The Thank The Decomposing organic material attached to a mini fridge

• Deanna’s Speculation: A different way to transport and store food

• Hue’s Speculation A lot of energy will be required to sustain our mini-fridge bodies. Therefore, fossil fuel + natural gas production will increase further contributing to climate change.

Hue’s Supposition: In a world where humanity is facing extinction and can only survive as hybrid creatures of half-human/half-non-human-animal.

• Alyssa’s Speculation: I would speculate that whatever non-human-animal we were evolving closest to would die off.

• Deanna’s Speculation: I imagine there would be a power struggle and hierarchies dividing the two categorized species

• Hue’s Speculation Factions will arise from humans that share similar animal traits. Discrimination.

Technology

Alyssa’s Supposition: What if computers used base-10?

• Alyssa’s Speculation: Our computers and technology would probably be much slower and less advanced.

• Deanna’s Speculation: Our technology and society would be significantly less innovative.

• Hue’s Speculation Computers would be slower to mitigate any errors and ambiguity from a base-10 system.

Deanna’s Supposition: In a world where people rode a vehicle made out of giant bubbles as a means of transportation, like a bubble train. Highly advanced phones were made from cardboard and towers with huge bubble wands made artificial clouds. The technology is eco-friendly and efficient.

• Alyssa’s Speculation: We would all turn into Care Bears and live in a happy world :)

• Deanna’s Speculation: This means that technology advanced to the point where cheap, weak materials could be technologically advanced.

• Hue’s Speculation Bubbles, due to their lightness, might cause people to stray off their path. Bubbles might accidentally pop and cause deaths. Advanced phones made from cardboards will easily be broken and worn down, from accidents and water damage.

Hue’s Supposition: In a world where our government is ran by AI

• Alyssa’s Speculation:I imagine the world would be something like the movie “A.I Artificial Intelligence,” with Haley Joel Osment. LOL

• Deanna’s Speculation: This would likely go terribly wrong and our world might end up like the movie, 9.

• Hue’s Speculation Everything is done by deterministic algorithms. There may be chaos that occurs from AI making choices that don’t take account of human emotions, or humanity in general.

• Possible artifacts for Hue's Spec: neatly organized wires wrapped together, A broken, corroded monitor.