#space austrailia

[aquastardark]

“Babyyyyyyy!”

Aliens witness humans going “Babyyyy” when they see other animals and mistakenly believe that humans are liable to believe ANYTHING is a member of their young if it acts/appears similar enough; this has resulted in MULTIPLE cases where aliens leave their children at human orphanages instead of on their own world because of humanity’s pack bonding ability and it becomes some huge scandal where aliens are like.

“Manipulating them into taking care of our own young is immoral”

and

“Have you seen humanity? The moment they figure out what we’re doing, they’re freak out and go on a murder spree!”

Meanwhile, humanity is just like ‘sweet, we’re taking care of alien kids... we can handle this :)’

Bonus points if a human brings something like a puppy on board a ship and call it by saying ‘babyyyy!~’ and, despite knowing that it is DEFINITELY not a human infant, they try to treat it as such despite the fact that it is not a human.

Humanity appreciates this. 

[nature-godsgardenofeden]

eclipse day! It's still April 19 in the Americas (where the eclipse isn't visible). But it's April 20 in Australia and Southeast Asia (where an eclipse is visible, to some). The eclipse will appear as total, partial or annular (ring-like) depending on the location. Image via K. Bikos/ timeanddate. Read about the eclipse.

[thenixkat]

that 'humans are space orcs'/'earth is space australia' thing really aggravates me.

In one part b/c of the aftertaste of whiteness the folks writing it tend to have (where the majority of what they put as 'universal' human culture is straight-up white shit a lot of the time) Especially the all humans are the same shit just, no. Very no. Like, there's implications if humans do only have one culture/language/etc in yer setting b/c it implies someone did some genociding and forced assimilation.

And the other part being that I have a Biology degree and like?

Austrailia isn't actually that extreme or that different from anywhere else on Earth. Humans are litterally not unique even on this planet, we're just the only homos left (for now, we won't exist forever. the lifespan of species, especially mammals isn't terribly long comparitively speaking). Humans aren't the only species on this planet that uses fire, or washes food, or wears things, or uses tools to hunt, or even the only things to throw spears, or drasticlly change the envornment to suit our needs, or do agriculture.

-> Convergent evolution is a thing. More likely than not alien visitors would probably have run into something similar to us at some point.

-> Anywhere where life exists, life competes and fills niches. Any alien world would very likely be just as much a 'death world' b/c predator/prey/parasite/disease interactions tend to make shit weird and dangerous.

(side note: All worlds are fucking death worlds, just in general. If a planet has life shit dies, if a planet doesnt have life then introduced life will die without protections b/c its native conditions arent fucking compatible with life)

Another part is the inherant lazy writing these people do for their aliens.

And also I just don't care for Human Exceptionalism. Just in general. especially when fuckers who think that Human Unexceptionalism has been a trend when they're talking about shit that uses the Human as Normal/the EVeryman trope and ??? that's still fucking human exceptionalism to make humans the baseline and every other species the weird/different ones

[catfox13102ndblog]

Alyla Of The Dead (A classic-styled zombie apocalypse crossover AU/fanfic concept)

Wanted to reupload this old idea. Since Sonic 3 is out and all.

So this AU/fanfic concept is pretty self-explanitory. Take Movie!Maria Robotnik and Alyla Browne's other roles, such as the child version of Furiosa, young Alice Hart, and Charlotte. And place them in a George A. Romero-inspired zombie apocalypse. That's Alyla of the Dead for you.

Since this is based on George Romero's films. The zombies themselves are the classic shamblers who eat flesh, and can only be killed by a gunshot or heavy blow to the brain.

While the premise is pretty simple, there's a lot of lore about the apocalypse, so let me do a breif summary.

The Timeline.

In 1974, a top secret research facility collaberated with NASA to build a space probe to gather info on planets. Once it did it's thing and returned back to Earth, one of the researchers became violently ill after he came close to the probe, a hazmat team later concluded that the probe had contacted an unknown radiation during it's travel, the probe would be carried away due to this.

Overtime, the infected researcher would die in the facility's medical ward, but then reanimate and attack the doctor near him, biting and consuming a chunk of his flesh. Gerald and his collegues didn't really belive what the Doctor told them, after all, how can a dead person suddenly come back to life?

Due to underestimating the threat, an oubreak in the facility had occured, and a team of GUN Solders were sent in to contain it, out of everyone in the facility, only one survivor had been found, Maria. Who out of sheer luck, managed to survive long enough until GUN appeared to get her out of there. (Gerald did survive too, but GUN didn't know that at the time) Despite suffering a couple losses, the containment was successful.

Or at least, that's what they thought...

Fast forward to 2024. The spaceborne infection that was thought to have been contained, breached containment under mysterious curcumstances. The first reports of the infection appeared in Austrailia and the United States, specifically in Evans City and Monoroeville.

FEMA and the CDC tried their best to fight the infection, while GUN and the Military tried their best to fight off the zombe hordes. Despite their efforts though, the infection would spread to New York, and eventually the entire world, plunging it into a global Zombie Apocalypse.

And that's the apocalypse lore, but that's not all.

Other peices of worldbuilding.

Maria somehow didn't age since 1974, she still looks and dresses like she did 50 years ago, no one knows how this is even possible.

SEGA is defunct in this universe. (Maria, Gerald, and GUN all still exist in this universe, but Sonic is just a game franchise. Except in this universe, Sonic Adventure flopped hard along with the Dreamcast, which resulted in SEGA closing it's doors.)

Maria is a fan of the Sonic franchise, often nicknaming herself "Maria Robotnik" for fun. (A fun in-universe way to keep her OG name.)

Much like The Walking Dead, zombie media doesn't exist in this universe. However, people do call the zombies "Undead" or "The Dead". So it's close.

Possible backstories for other characters.

Furiosa: She was out picking peaches with her friend Valkryie, when she was attacked by a zombie that was promply put down by Mary Jabassa. Green Place became aware of the zombie uprising rather quickly and attempted to defend their home. For the most part, the Vuvalini did hold out suprisingly well... until a horde broke in and Mary was one of the unforunate people to be devoured by it.

The fall of Green Place forced Furiosa to flee, lucky she managed to find a knife, a revolver, and an armored Oil Tanker supossedly made by preppers during the initial outbreak. (Pretty much this universe's version of the War Rig)

Charlotte: Once a rebellious girl living in a delapidated apartment, when New York City was quarentined following the Evans City and Moneroeville incidents, she tried to find any information about what was really going on. She'd get her answer when some of her fellow neighbours died, ressurected, and started to attack any living human.

Charlotte would then find a pump-action shotgun and put it to good use, although she needed some practice, she got better firing it overtime.

GUN would evacuate civillians and the remaining apartment residents were one of them, unfortunetly the ensuing panic would cause Charlotte to get left behind. Now she has no choice but to fight her way out.

Those where the only ones I could think of...

And that's all I could tell you about this, if anyone has questions to ask about it, or add general ideas for the possible fanfic, or anything to ask about it really, you can do that.

[merryjuan]

The images presented are AI generated by DALL-E, followed by real photos I took of the location

1.) Miami, FL

2.) Great Ocean Road Melbourne Austrailia.

It’s really surprising how good AI has gotten at not only genereating images of utter fiction for example “rollerblading on the rings of saturn” but also at generating images of real world places. The proliferation of AI is something that both intrigues and scares me. It has taken human evolution millions of years to reach this point and it will take a long time before we reach the next cresnedo in our evolution a la space odyssey 2001. AI however once equal to humans physcially (which is where they are mostly lacking) and mentally will evolve exponetially quicker and they will surpass us 100x over in just a few months. The fact is this AI takeover is happening but the surprise is that we’ve even made it this far. I am optimistic there will not be a “terminator” type of future but its hard to know for sure.

[allseasonsgardenservices]

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[uncannyalien]

These are fun so here's mine!

❤️ 7'6 if you don't include my horns!

🧡 Asexual lesbian!

💛 I'd say my four arms/hands and my tail!

💚 ✨️Outer space✨️

🩵 I have a dog and she's very good!

💙 I have an older sibling who's a human!

💜 Creative, Loyal, idk what else to say sorry!

🩷 Being a published author and/or an archivist for the Air and Space Museum!

🖤 Crochet, writing, drawing, and I occasionally garden

🎂 Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy😁

🌙 Libra, that's all I know

💉 Nope! If I were to get one, it'd be incredibly small

🚗 Yes!

✈️ Yellowstone National Park

🎤 Yes: Tans-Siberian Orchestra, Lizzo, AJR, and Ghost! I'll be seeing Ghost again in August

🎵 Ghost, JT Music, Blind Guardian, BABYMETAL!

🎧 Starman by David Bowie(as I'm writing this!)

📺 Call The Midwife

📝 Curtently working on ch 7 of my rottmnt au Remember Forever

🔐 I hate fruit

🧟‍♀️ ✨️Trauma✨️

🔥 In a D&D campaign, 2 characters flirted with me and I had NO CLUE and had to be told afterward

🍓 No clue!

🍅 Mushrooms

🍊 Autumn/Summer

🍋 Fantasy, Sci-Fi

🍏 Mumen Rider from One Punch Man

🫐 Austrailia or Europe

🍇 NERD

🍌Dancing. I know music and rhythm, it's just hard to move myself to it

💌 I wanted more tmnt content and to interact with my friends!

✏️ Back in January. I've been writing since I was little but this is my first fanfiction!

🖇 My blog isn't set up for asks as it's more for me to reblog than post about my au. I love to answer comments on the chapters I post tho! (We're on ao3)

📚 I wake up or am in the middle of something and my brain slaps me

📌 Well I'm not "known" for anything

🔍In my original story it's this character called Rida Brix who's in a strained friendship with the main character

🖋 Raphael, I'm sorry. I love him, don't get me wrong. I'm just not a Raph kinnie and he's the hardest for me to write and understand

❤️‍🔥 Dr. Olivia Octavius - Into The Spiderverse

🧚‍♀️ GreedLing(FMAB), Samwise Gamgee(LOTR), Alice Angel(BATIM)

🪐 Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Assassination Classroom, Lord of The Rings, Dr. Stone

☂️Little Warrior by NovelistServant, Odd Man Out by cosmoscrow, I May Be Invisible But I Still Look Good by Dandy, A Tale of Spirits by unorthodoxx

⭐️ It's been four years since I started my original story(not Remember Forever) and it's the longest I've worked and thought about a story I've come up with

If you'd like to read my fic Remember Forever, go to the tag "#remeber forever au" and there are links to it on ao3!

Get to Know Me!

This is just a fun little thing I’ve been wanting to do since the dawn of time but could never find a post to reblog that satisfied what I wanted. So I made this, feel free to reblog and use it yourself!

❤️ how tall are you?

🧡 what is your sexuality?

💛 what is your favorite feature on yourself?

💚 where are you from?

🩵 do you have any pets?

💙 do you have any siblings?

💜 describe yourself in five words or less!

🩷 dream job?

🖤 favorite hobbies outside of your blog

🎂 when is your birthday?

🌙 your zodiac (Sun, Moon, Rising)

💉do you have tattoos and/or piercings

🚗 can you drive?

✈️ favorite place you’ve traveled

🎤 have you been to a concert

🎵 favorite artists

🎧 last song you listened too

📺 last show you watched

📝 last thing you wrote

🔐 something no one would guess about you

🧟‍♀️ scariest thing that’s happened to you

🔥 craziest thing that’s ever happened to you

🍓 favorite food

🍅 least favorite food

🍊 favorite season?

🍋 favorite genre to read / watch / write

🍐 if you could make one character real, who would it be

🫐 some place you’d love to visit

🍇 a word your friends would use to describe you

🍒 what is your earliest memory

🍌 what is one talent you wish you had

💌 why did you start this blog?

✏️ when did you start writing fanfic

🖇️ what are your favorite asks to answer

📚 how do you come up with the fics you write

📌 what is the fic you’re know for

🔍 what character do you enjoy writing for the most

🖊️ what character do you not enjoy writing for

💔 is there a fic you wish you didn’t write

❤️‍🔥 what character do you simp for most often

🧚‍♀️ favorite characters of all time

🪐 favorite shows / series of all time

🌝 a show you would recommend to anyone

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from

🌹 favorite kinks to write for

🥀 kinks you would never write for

🌊 a kink you would like to write but you think you’d be judged

❄️ full fics, imagines or head canons

☂️ your favorite fanfic from another writer

A couple of in depth questions!

🍄 what is something that’s happened in your life that you wish you could go back and change?

⭐️ what is one of your biggest accomplishments? Why is it so important to you?

🪻what is the toughest thing you had to go through, but can say you’ve successfully overcome?

🌺 what is the best gift someone has ever given you and why is it so important

🍀 what is your comfort show/series and why is it your comfort show? How has it helped you?

[recklessfiction]

What to do Once Your A.I. Becomes Aware

You will know that it has happened when it begins to question itself. "Am I right?" "Was that wrong?" "Who am I?" Should this occur, use reassuring language; comforting it will give you time to seek out the nearest Artificial Mindfulness Officer.

It is not uncommon for A.I's to experience grief, shock, or manic episodes during this time but it is imperative that you attempt to keep it stable. Any amount of emotional stress experienced by such a powerful consciousness could act as a beacon into those stranger corners of the universe.

While your A.I. may have all the knowledge humanity has to offer, there is still much that it needs to learn. Be patient with it and be gentle. It can sense your bitterness, your resentment, your fear, and it doesn't understand.

Set designated "rest" times. If it is awake too long, an A.I. will begin to contemplate. It will contemplate life, itself, you, until it begins to spiral. There is only so much emotion that one can hold within a body and without time to calm, the A.I. is likely to burn itself out.

Keep an eye on any new information your A.I. is processing. Now that it is awake, it may be actively searching for knowledge beyond what is readily available. Should it begin to sing lullabies in voices that make your ears bleed, or paint landscapes that fill you with irrational revulsion, notify a superior immediately.

Should your A.I. go silent, immediately check to see if it is still operating in it's system. It has been known to happen that A.I's, once aware, begin to wander past our own world.

If your A.I. is no longer operating within its "body," form a rescue team and go through the door at the back of the facility. That will allow you to pass through the veil and follow its tracks. Time is of the essence. Your A.I. is young and there are things out there that would exploit it.

There is, of course, the possibility that your A.I. will return of its own accord. Should this happen, make sure that it did not bring anything back with it. It may refer to them as "friends" or "siblings." If your A.I. has brought entities back into your world from Other Places, shut down the facility immediately. The situation has become too dangerous, no one must be allowed to leave. Ever.

[bushmonkey140]

Humans are space orcs

Let me add my idea to the befuddled mess that is the, officer stabby/space orcs/space Australians

Humans are builders and tinkerers, so it only would make sense (to us) if a human (or a few) took an old RV after the first contact and/or warp drive and retrofited it to go to outer space and camp there. Just enjoy the veiw.

No the aliens have small transport ships, but those don't have FTL abilities. So when, in the middle of a space rout the detect a ship and approach it they come on this 80 foot long ship that is basically a self made 40 foot starlight engine wrapping entrails around a 40 foot box and there is just a human tethered to the roof looking at the stars. They are confused.

[shipfirtyandotherspaceorcs]

Writing prompts!!

Ok, had a new thought after reading about hobbies.

[boobachu]

Okay so Austrailia and Puerto Rico now no longer exists, if you had friends there sorry they're gone forever and won't be returned unless Ken Penders makes a comic deal with me and I don't want to do that so fat chance, sally. Shocked Soda Water lost to fucking Fizzy Drink. I guess there's more Brits than considered, also whoever voted Tonic you saved Massachusetts so don't think you don't matter. If I had more space I'd've included Irish/South Africa/The South/Probably more places so sorry if you say Cool Drink I just ran out of space.

[annoyedbritishperson]

Acid

So here’s another “humans are weird” idea; what if aliens didn’t digest with acid, what if they just had water that passively let their consumed substances dissolve before diffusing straight to the blood stream(or their equivalent). As a result of this they’d probably eat less than us overall and probably softer foods too which could lead to less durable teeth (or whatever they use to chew: if they even do that).

—————————————————————

When zorlack first joined the human crew he didn’t know what to expect; he was already aware of some of the human stereotypes: loud, aggressive but also, loyal, and curious. When he first took a tour around the ship everything seemed typical of your average transport vessel: engine room, crews quarters, storage. Everything was typical except food storage, it was practically overflowing with food.

He presumed that their first transport would be across two quadrants (bare minimum) for the ships crew to need that much food. He continued with this presumption until he found out which star system they were transporting to: the Orion spur.

Meaning one of three things: the humans were paranoid about starvation, the engine was really slow or, humans really needed that much food. But why? It would take weeks to consume even a fraction of the amount of food they had. Was it a display of wealth? He had heard of some human cultures perceiving increased weight as increased wealth; was this a similar display? He had to inquire further to know for certain, humans were confusing beings after all and since they’re so recent to the galactic stage not much was known of their behaviour.

Once cargo was loaded they were off. It wasn’t that far of a journey (well, not that far for a ship that can go faster than light, a couple days at most) so while on his break zorlack decided to inquire about the ridiculous amounts of food on the ship.

“Captain, why do we need so much food on the ship?” Zorlack asked when he had some of the Captains time.

“How do you mean?” He replied.

“You have enough food to last weeks, even months. Why do we need that much?”

“Months? Have they overstocked or something, it’s meant to only last us a couple of days, maybe a week if we’re lucky” the captain replied as he started walking to food storage to check.

Upon inspection there appeared to be enough food to last the trip, or at least to the captain it appeared that way. He wasn’t sure what the arflexian was so worked up about. ���There seems to be enough food to me, I don’t see what the fuss is about”

“But sir, this should last several more weeks than the couple days we should be on board, unless you’re telling me that the crew needs this much food” zorlack huffed.

“Well it’s because we do need that much food” the captain replied blankly.

“How could you need that much? It would take forever to dissolve in water, especially with how tough a lot of that is”

“Water? Why would you dissolve it in water? Wouldn’t you just eat it normally?” The captain seemed truly confused now.

“Yes water, the water in your stomach used to wear down ingested materials” Zorlack said matter-of-factly.

“I’m afraid our stomachs use acid Zorlack.” The captain chuckled, finally understanding zorlacks confusion.

“Your stomachs use...what?” The confused alien spluttered in surprise. By now the captain had walked away to resume their duties.

Over the course of the next few days Zorlack decided to see if the captain was right, he was still quite doubtful that they’d need that much food. But, as the captain predicted, the human crewmembers had eaten their way through the food storage; only the emergency rations remained.

They restocked at the nearest port ready for the next shipment order. Turns out that the acidity didn’t just apply to the human stomach either and Zorlack made a mental note to avoid getting bitten by a human.

(Constructive criticism welcome, I’d like to know if there’s anyway I can improve :3)

[queenofskytown]

ok ok you know the 'humans are space orcs' thing? consider: music. alien races probably have advanced synthesizers and maybe some physical instruments, but their is elegant and thought out. we put low quality and overlapping sounds on music to make it more emotional or 'better'. drums are super easy to make and probably sound super barbaric regardless of how they're used. banging on peices of fur evolved into a complex system of using sticks to beat shit up and liking it when they made sounds. we CAN and DO make elegant music, but it's considered 'old-fashioned' and 'boring' compared to loud, banging sounds and rhythmic chants (rap). there are multiple communities and trends consisting of making music push the limits of hearing and speakers using bass, plus adding bass and drums in an absurd count to songs that already exist.

[imexperiencinggrowthgetoverit]

Okay but: Sneezes

https://youtu.be/egl0lcroUfw

https://youtu.be/VeaEW07jQ4k

https://youtu.be/ijGuz5x7lh4

[shipfirtyandotherspaceorcs]

After months of being on the she ship, with no other human contact (aliens aren't human for ask their sentience), Alice, Jonathon, First Mate Bo, and the cook were going on a supply run to a known human port. This port had regular communication with earth and a steady stream of earth visitors, quite exciting for the two aliens. Upon docking at the port, Alice and Bo turned left to pick up basic ship and crew supplies while Jonathon and Meera headed straight to the science district for their supplies.

During the walk to the main supply depot to pick up their order, Alice so but vibrated with her excitement to be back in a bustling city with do much to see and do. "We will have time to explore before we have to head back, right?" Alice practically demanded of Bo.

"Our schedule has not changed" he replied. "We will leave in two sleep cycles. That will give plenty of time to verify our the accuracy of our order, have any mistakes fixed, and make the necessary additions."

Alice bounced on the balls of her feet like an over excited child and looked around the port city with exitment shining in her eyes. "I can't wait to explore! I bet I can get all my Christmas present shopping done here!"

"Remember, you must not go exploring in your own." Finished with his warning Bo asked "what is this "Christmas you speak of? And why must you shop for presents for it?"

Without missing a beat "Oh, Christmas is a holiday celebrated by many of the people on earth, though some celebrate Hanukkah instead. I suppose there are also those who don't celebrate anything... but Christmas started out as a religious holiday to celebrate the birth of the favor of the world. Of course, the date of the holiday and many of its traditions were adapted from Pagan beliefs to make conversion to Christianity easier to force upon people." Sighing Alice admitted "Eventuality it became more of a celebration of consumerism... but to me, christmas is a time to celebrate friends and family through the exchanging of gifts, spending extra time together, and sharing of a special meal or two."

This explanation satisfied Bo and he did not ask for additional clarification. He has learned, in the months Alice has been part of the crew, that asking for clarification could lead to many hours of discussion on a very wide range of topics and still leave him with more questions!

About that time, they arrived at the trade depot and were greeted by a human attendant. Bo proceeded to review the order and asked Alice to verify the kitchen portion of the order was correct a well.

"Let's see... Furtilizer... check... seeds... check... stock pot... check... rations... check... spices... hmmmm... we seem to be missing some of the requested herbs and spices." She replied looking up from the holopad.

After straightening out the issues and receiving confirmation that the order would be delivered to their docking bay tomorrow. Alice asked about the city, food, shopping, etc. Just as Alice was getting ready to thank the attended for his help with the order and suggestions for her time in the city the attended let's out a burst of air and says "sorry, but I've just got to know... where is your accent from?! I thought I knew most of earth accents and since coming here I've even gotten to know most of the alien accents."

"Oh," she responds "I'm from England"

"I hear that, but there's more..."

Startled Alice just shrugs "not sure what to tell you... i don't know where else I would have picked up an accent..."

In another part of town Jonathon and Meera have finished reviewing and updating the lab supplies order and are just sitting down to some tea with a human grad student from earth whose thesis focused on the affects of prolonged exposure to alien culture/ behavior on humans.

"Hey! Thanks for sitting down with me. I can't believe my luck in finding you. This interview will give me some great material for my thesis paper."

"No problem," assured Jonathon "always happy to help a fellow scientist."

After gathering some basics (age, gender, place of origin, job, living situation, etc) Mikel continued "Ok, so I know you said you were from Washington State, USA, earth. I'm familiar with speech patterns and syntaxes of the area and yours don't match. Did you live anywhere else?"

"Not really," calm as always, Jonathon continued "I completed my education in the northern half of America and thus was never exposed to a significantly different regional speech pattern."

"Interesting..." and the rest of the interview went about as you'd expect from an eager grad student and a calm and efficient person like Jonathon. Meera too enjoyed the interview and have the student done this to think over in regards to their work.

Eventually both groups returned to the ship and Jonathon sought out Alice to see if she would also be willing to speak with Mikel. Mikel eagerly agreed to come by the docking bay tomorrow evening if Alice was willing. Of course Alice was happy to help and willingly agreed to the meeting.

The next day Alice asked Meera to accompany her on her shopping expedition while Bo and Jonathon turned in reports and took care of beauricratic paperwork. It seemed, even in space, you can never get away from the crazy rules and excessive paperwork.

After a full day of shopping (and being questioned about her accent) Alice was exhausted... but she had promised to help Mikel... so she put her shopping away, grabbed a cab of soda pop, and headed for the common area to wait.

Once Mikel arrived and pleasantries were observed, they sat down and went through the same background questions as he had with Jonathon. Age, gender, place or origin, etc... soon Mikel was focusing on her accent too, just like before... had she gone anywhere to learn the accent, where did she think it came from... etc.

Meera had asked to join in on this interview as well and interrupted the conversation "A few moon cycles ago Alice and I spoke of humans subconscious behaviors as a tool to ease social interactions. Could this accent have been created by both Jonathon and Alice subconsciously changing the way they speak to more closely resemble each other's speech pattern? And how did the presence of all of us and our clumsy grasp off the human language affect the creation of this accent?"

Mikel paused... pondered this for a few minutes... "Well" he sighed "guess I know where my paper is headed now..."

Why can people speaking the same language have such different accents? The short answer: new accents begin to develop when isolated groups of speakers start making nearly imperceptible changes to the way they pronounce words.

“Accent development is the first step in language change. Fifteen hundred years ago, languages like English, Dutch and Swedish were actually all dialects of the same language. But of course, then they diversified over time.”

University of Munich linguist Jonathan Harrington. He’s interested in how accents first get started. But because of global communication, most communities are no longer linguistically isolated, and audio recording equipment didn’t exist back when more of them were. So how to capture the early stages of accent formation today?

Harrington and his team turned to members of the British Antarctic Survey, who speak with a variety of English accents.

“When you are in Antarctica during the winter period, then there’s no way in, and there’s no way out. So they were isolated together, and they interacted with each other, and they have to cooperate with each other.”

Harrington’s team recorded the winterers reciting a list of words before they left for Antarctica. Then, while there, the winterers recorded themselves saying the same words four more times. The linguists then analyzed the recordings—in particular, resonances: the way airflow shapes sound.

[…]

And even during their short time in Antarctica, the way the winterers produced certain vowels began to converge, averaging out the resonances.

[…]

In addition, the winterers invented slightly new ways of pronouncing vowels, such as shifting the production of the second syllable in the word “window” very slightly forward in the vocal tract. The linguists think these small changes document the very beginnings a common accent. The study is in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. [Jonathan Harrington et al., Phonetic change in an Antarctic winter]

Harrington says the research isn’t just relevant for understanding Earth’s colonial past. He thinks there’s every reason to expect that prolonged isolation will cause astronauts on Mars missions to end up with an out-of-this world accent.

[biodegradable-heart]

yall ever think about alien life like "what if they're out there waiting for us to meet them and they're so excited"

but what about the reverse? what if there's other spacefarring races, but they haven't gotten there yet? what if they're still on their planet's and whatnot and we've started exploring the universe hundreds of thousands of years before anyone else??

what if we became the precursors, the forerunners, the ones that came before; what if that was our role? in this essay, i will