PhrenotopiaThis is an extended and refurbished version featured as guest video on the channel @Khanubis | youtu.be/j942bn29qnw
The Republic of South Africa recognizes 11 official languages. This is a daunting number and perhaps not the most optimal way for an efficiently running society. Fortunately, there are well-studied proposals to alleviate this situation, with a little political will and popular support. The current situation has its roots in the Apartheid regime, when English & South African Dutch or Afrikaans reigned supreme as the two sole official languages. Many closely related dialects were separated into different languages. The solution lies in language harmonization of those language clusters with a high degree of mutual intelligibility and by thus devising overarching standard languages. The adoption of a regional language model as used in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, where different administrative areas are designated for each language would be a next step. Negotiating this model would prove difficult as there are many languages and many mixed areas, especially in metropolitan districts.
This could lead to four main official languages (Louw EP, 1992) - Nguni covering Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele communities - Sotho-Tswana covering Tswana, Pedi and Sotho communities - Afrikaans covering the communities of coloured as well as white Afrikaners - English as the umbrella language for the entire nation and for metropolitan districts Venda and Tsonga would have status as regional minority languages.
REFERENCES (under construction) - Louw, PE (1992) "Language and National Unity in a Post-Apartheid South Africa" | tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560049208559067 - Makalele (...) - ... - "Harmonised or Unified Sotho" (Sesotho online) http://www.sesotho.web.za/harmonisation.htm
How South Africa Could Have Had Only 4 Official LanguagesPhrenotopia2020-12-25 | This is an extended and refurbished version featured as guest video on the channel @Khanubis | youtu.be/j942bn29qnw
The Republic of South Africa recognizes 11 official languages. This is a daunting number and perhaps not the most optimal way for an efficiently running society. Fortunately, there are well-studied proposals to alleviate this situation, with a little political will and popular support. The current situation has its roots in the Apartheid regime, when English & South African Dutch or Afrikaans reigned supreme as the two sole official languages. Many closely related dialects were separated into different languages. The solution lies in language harmonization of those language clusters with a high degree of mutual intelligibility and by thus devising overarching standard languages. The adoption of a regional language model as used in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, where different administrative areas are designated for each language would be a next step. Negotiating this model would prove difficult as there are many languages and many mixed areas, especially in metropolitan districts.
This could lead to four main official languages (Louw EP, 1992) - Nguni covering Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele communities - Sotho-Tswana covering Tswana, Pedi and Sotho communities - Afrikaans covering the communities of coloured as well as white Afrikaners - English as the umbrella language for the entire nation and for metropolitan districts Venda and Tsonga would have status as regional minority languages.
REFERENCES (under construction) - Louw, PE (1992) "Language and National Unity in a Post-Apartheid South Africa" | tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560049208559067 - Makalele (...) - ... - "Harmonised or Unified Sotho" (Sesotho online) http://www.sesotho.web.za/harmonisation.htmThe reports of my death have been greatly exaggeratedPhrenotopia2024-02-12 | I can only say the the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated
But a lot has happened in my life since I started on the alien evolution series. Especially since 2020, COVID year incidentally, when I really started intensifying putting out videos in this series.
So what is going to happen on and to this channel going forward?
Well, I do still have large amounts of ideas and scripts that I started writing on. I also still feel I want to finish what I started especially the successful series of mine on alien biosphere evolution and related. I will also want to continue further on evolutionary theory, exobiology and alien biospheres. I may still dabble a little in alternate history too of course.Jovian Life Forms: Speculative Zoology From My PastPhrenotopia2022-12-11 | Patreon: patreon.com/phrenotopia Website: phrenotopia.com Twitter: twitter.com/Phrenotopian
Video Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:30 My Inspiration: Sagan and StarCom 1:35 Chemistry of Jupiter 3:08 Evolutionary tree of Jovian Life 5:11 Multicellular Sinkers 7:06 Multicellular Floaters 9:18 A Jovian Hunter 10:54 Advanced Hunters 12:20 Giant Floaters (Rectarius) 13:50 Rectarius Inhabitants 14:19 Giant Floater Epifauna 17:38 Bonus Creatures 19:10 Concluding Remarks
CREDITS: ► "Title: Name" by @artist
REFERENCES: ► Sagan CE & Salpeter EE (1976) "Particles, Environments, And Possible Ecologies In The Jovian Atmosphere" The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 32Other Worlds #3: Convergent Evolution Beyond Earth?Phrenotopia2022-06-25 | What would an alien species look like? Envisioning alien intelligent life has always been a very popular trope of science fiction, but its realism remains a vexing question. What might they look like physically? Convergent evolution is often invoked to account for visions of oddly similar aliens and the fauna and flora of their home planets, but it's not without its issues.
Many thanks to @12tone for lending his voice for the Sagan/Salpeter quote.
Gas giants are often thought of as being inhospitable to life, especially the ones in our solar system. But as early as 1976 Carl Sagan himself together with Edwin Salpeter already speculated on the possible existence of life in the clouds of Jupiter. They show that abiogenesis could be possible in Jovian conditions, and even create a the speculative alien biosphere. And even if we cannot find life on Jupiter, Saturn or any other of our solar system's gas giants, perhaps life is present on exoplanets somewhere in the galaxy. In fact, the brown dwarf WISE 0855-0714 has recently been put forward as suitable for life. Speculative biology artist Charlotte Veldhuizen also put forward several interesting vision for gas giant-based life on an exoplanet in her "Project C" describing a group of inhabited stars called "The Cluster".
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Video Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:00 An Alien Biosphere on Jupiter 4:35 A Model of the Jovian Atmosphere 7:23 From Chromophores to Life 10:34 Concluding Thoughts
CREDITS: ► "Carl Sagan's Cosmos: Life on Jupiter" reworked by @yeoldebrian ► "Sagan & Salpeter quote" narrated by @12tone ► "The Archeon Eon" by @timbertelink1306 | commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Archean.png ► "Lessons from NASA's Galileo Probe" by @sciencechannel | youtube.com/watch?v=4oDR9XRNShI ► "Jupiter internal structure" by @NASAgovVideo ► "Extremophiles" from Merino et al (2019) ► "Extremophile adaptations" from Orellana et al (2018) ► "Pioneer Mission" from @randomroleplaygaem ► "Jupiter cloudscape" by Ron Miller | https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/media-gallery/atmosphere?show=fig_562e2fa248b496f704cf3c82&m=357 ► "Hypothetical life in Jupiter's atmosphere" by Paul Calle ► "Life in Brown Dwarf atmosphere" by Mark Garlick for Science magazine | science.org/content/article/alien-life-could-thrive-clouds-failed-stars
REFERENCES: ► Sagan CE & Salpeter EE (1976) "Particles, Environments, And Possible Ecologies In The Jovian Atmosphere" The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 32 ► Hallsworth JE, Koop T, Dallas TD et al (2021) Water activity in Venus’s uninhabitable clouds and other planetary atmospheres. Nature Astronomy 5 | doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01391-3 ► Yates JS, Palmer PI, Biller B & Cockell CS (2017) "Atmospheric Habitable Zones in Y Dwarf Atmospheres" The Astrophysical Journal 836(2) | doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/184 ► Parreño RP, Liu YL, Beltran AB (2019) "A Sulfur Copolymers (SDIB)/Polybenzoxazines (PBz) Polymer Blend for Electrospinning of Nanofibers" Nanomaterials 9(11) | doi.org/10.3390/nano9111526 ► Merino N, Aronson HS, Bojanova DP, Feyhl-Buska J, Wong ML, Zhang S, Giovannelli D (2019) "Living at the Extremes: Extremophiles and the Limits of Life in a Planetary Context" Frontiers in Microbiology 10 doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00780 ► Orellana R, Macaya C, Bravo G, Dorochesi F, Cumsille A, Valencia R, Rojas C & Seeger M (2018) "Living at the Frontiers of Life: Extremophiles in Chile and Their Potential for Bioremediation" Frontiers in Microbiology 9 | doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.02309 ► Sokol J (2016) "Alien life could thrive in the clouds of failed stars" | science.org/content/article/alien-life-could-thrive-clouds-failed-stars ► Jack SY et al (2017) "Atmospheric Habitable Zones in Y Dwarf Atmospheres" The Astrophysical Journal 836:184 | doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/184Extinct Aliens: ThylacocephalaPhrenotopia2022-05-07 | Patreon: patreon.com/phrenotopia Website: phrenotopia.com Twitter: twitter.com/Phrenotopian
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Video Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:48 Original Discovery 3:35 More Thylacocephalan Species 4:33 Ainiktozoon Controversy 6:54 Morphology & Lifestyle 10:43 Concluding Remarks
REFERENCES: ► Steeman FA (1999) "Udforskningen afThylacocephala - en mærkelig gruppe af leddyr." Geologisk Tidsskrift 1999(2) ► Rolfe WDI (1992) "Not Yet Proven Crustacea: the Thylacocephala" Acta Zoologica 73(5) ► Schram FR (2014) "Family level classification within Thylacocephala, with comments on their evolution and possible relationships" Crustaceana 87(3) ► Schram FR, Hof CHJ & Steeman FA (1999) "Thylacocephala (Arthropoda: Crustacea?) from the Cretaceous of Lebanon and implications for thylacocephalan systematics" Palaeontology 42:5 ► Vannier J, Chen JY, Huang DY, Charbonnier S & Wang XQ (2006) "The Early Cambrian origin of thylacocephalan arthropods." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51(2) ► van der Brugghen W, Schram FR & Martill DM (1997) "The fossil Ainiktozoon is an arthropod" Nature 385 ► Arduini P, Pinna G, & Teruzzi G (1980) "An new and unusual lower Jurassic cirriped from Osteno in Lombardy: Ostenia cypriformis n.g. n.sp. (Preliminary note)." Atti della Societa italiana di Scienze naturali e del' Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano 121 ► Secretan, S. (1983) "Une nouvelle classe fossile dans la super-classe des crustaces: Conchyliocarida." Compte Rendu de Séances de l'Academie des Sciences 296 ► Briggs DEG & Rolfe WDI (1983) "New Concavicarida (new order: ?Crustacea) from the Upper Devonian of Gogo, Western Australia, and the palaeoecology and affinities of the group." Special Papers in Paleontology 30Other Worlds #2: Astrobiology PrimerPhrenotopia2022-05-03 | Patreon: patreon.com/phrenotopia
Life in the universe: where can it exist throughout space and time? What exoplanets or even our solar system's planets could host an alien biosphere enabling the kind of evolution that occurred on Earth? These are the central questions that the scientific field of astrobiology tries to answer. As there are many conceivable ways for matter to coalesce into a living system, it can be a challenge to know where to look first. However, life as we know it here on Earth is the only kind that we know is possible with absolute certainty. So when looking for life elsewhere, the best practice is to limit ourselves to a specific set of known parameters, lest we overstretch ourselves. So what are the basic requirements for Earth-like life and where could we then expect these to play together in order to create life? Let’s find out!
Slimes as living, bouncing blobs of goo, are a very popular trope in many fantasy stories and games. In this followup video to "The Biology of Slimes", I'm going to speculate on whether a creature like this could actually have evolved on our very own Earth! What lineage on our planet could be the best candidate for departing on such a journey? What evolutionary forces might drive a cascade of bodily innovations as to finally arrive at such an alien life form? And to what levels of complexity might we be able to take this weird but wonderful conceptual being?
BONUS: Interestingly, American roboticists have created a jumping robot that can leaps to record height and which mechanically is very similar to my slime's internal design. Link to paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04606-3 Link to @NatureVideoChannel : youtu.be/mvHXwTa5-DA
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:45 The Ideal Ancestor Candidate 3:55 Initial Evolutionary Pathway 7:39 The Evolution of Land Slimes 10:25 Final Remarks 10:47 Patreon Announcements 11:57 Outro
CREDITS References: - Ou, Qiang et al. “A vanished history of skeletonization in Cambrian comb jellies.” Science advances vol. 1,6 e1500092. 10 Jul. 2015, doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500092 - Mark Q. Martindale and J Q Henry "Reassessing embryogenesis in the Ctenophora: the inductive role of e1 micromeres in organizing ctene row formation in the 'mosaic' embryo, Mnemiopsis leidyi." Development (1997) 124:10 - Leonid L. Moroz "Convergent evolution of neural systems in ctenophores" J Exp Biol (2015) 218 (4): 598–611 doi.org/10.1242/jeb.110692 - Leonid L. Moroz et al. "The ctenophore genome and the evolutionary origins of neural systems" Nature (2014) 510 - Sidney L Tamm "Novel Structures Associated with Presumed Photoreceptors in the Aboral Sense Organ of Ctenophores" Biol Bull 2016 Oct; 231(2) - Luke A. Parry, Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, James C. Weaver, Javier Ortega-Hernández "Cambrian comb jellies from Utah illuminate the early evolution of nervous and sensory systems in ctenophores" iScience (2021) 24:9 doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102943. - Jason S. Presnell, Lauren E. Vandepas, Kaitlyn J. Warren, Billie J. Swalla, Chris T. Amemiya, William E. Browne "The Presence of a Functionally Tripartite Through-Gut in Ctenophora Has Implications for Metazoan Character Trait Evolution" Current Biology (Aug 25, 2016) doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.08.019 - Leonardi, N. D., Thuesen, E. V., & Haddock, S. H. (2020). A sticky thicket of glue cells: A comparative morphometric analysis of colloblasts in 20 species of comb jelly (phylum Ctenophora). Ciencias Marinas, 46(4), 211–225. doi.org/10.7773/cm.v46i4.3118
Footage: - Syncytial Slime Mould: BBC ONE "The Great British Year" - @BBC youtu.be/GY_uMH8Xpy0 - Comb Jelly: Victoria High School, BC, Canada - @vichighmarine youtu.be/zsMUeo4qJjk - The Lovely Lobed Comb Jelly - @MontereyBayAquarium youtu.be/bW3sqB7RTIc
Music: - "Backyard Safari" by TechSmith - "What Does Anybody Know About Anything" by Chris Zabriskie | http://chriszabriskie.com | CC BY 4.0 - "Digital Memories" by @Unicorn Heads - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumAlien Worlds 2: Live Review - ExcerptsPhrenotopia2021-10-26 | I did a livestream taking a closer look at the NetFlix series Alien Worlds episode 2 (Janus). These are the excerpts of that livestream dealing with the alien biosphere presented in this episode and my comments on the astrobiology or exobiology of this fictional world.Fixing Alien Worlds 3: Eden - Review & AnalysisPhrenotopia2021-10-09 | My latest livestream going through Netflix' documentary series "Alien Worlds" episode 3 dealing with the planet Eden, its environment and alien fauna, prompted me to create an in-depth review and analysis. As an exercise in speculative zoology and astrobiology, this episode on another alien biosphere has been widely criticized by some for the creatures that were too reminiscent of Earth's animals. Apart from a lot of the things the episode does get right, I have uncovered several bigger issues.
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:32 Eden's Planetary Environment 3:30 Flawed Ecosystem Concept 7:49 Fixing the Ecosystem of Eden 10:52 Creature Anatomy 15:05 Final Remarks
"ROTATIONAL SYNCHRONIZATION MAY ENHANCE HABITABILITY FOR CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS: KEPLER BINARY CASE STUDIES" Paul A. Mason, Jorge I. Zuluaga, Joni M. Clark, Pablo A. Cuartas-Restrepo 2013. The American Astronomical Society | arxiv.org/pdf/1307.4624.pdf exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1387/tamer-in-twos-binary-stars-may-be-harbors-for-habitabilitySpeculative Zoology From My Past: The Cordala SystemPhrenotopia2021-09-20 | Reading Dougal Dixon’s “After Man: A Zoology of the Future” as a teenager in the mid eighties, really spurred me on to do my own speculative zoology. But my interest in biology and the history of life on Earth as a child had always inspired me to create many fanciful creatures. Armed with my pencils, I thought up countless faunas detailing them on numerous sheets of paper. This is the first one in a new series where I will have some of my old drawings retraced so I can show you all the weird worlds I imagined back in the day. The Cordala system was originally inspired by a comic book series called Storm, especially the chronicles of Pandarve. In this series, the hero, originally an astronaut from Earth, is stranded in an alternate universe, where one could sail between worlds through a continuous atmosphere. I envisaged an enormous gas giant that was big enough to encompass habitable worlds within its breathable atmosphere.Alien Worlds ep 3 Live Review - ExcerptsPhrenotopia2021-08-25 | The original livestream was amputated by copyright bots, so I made a video with all the interesting tidbits and minimal copyright-protected contents. The amputated video has been unlisted, but you can still see what's left of it and read the original comments here: youtu.be/HTtgAqY6BoM Watch the full version here: utreon.com/v/qCvCRSqY3Dc
I have been doing a livestream where I will attempt to take a closer look at the NetFlix series: Alien Worlds LIVE while keeping an eye on your comments in the chat. This will be on episode 3 (Eden) and to avoid copyright blocks I created a re-rendering of the interesting bits of the episodes using still frames, text-to-speech and public domain music.Surprise Still Alive-streamPhrenotopia2021-07-20 | I'M STILL ALIVE!!! I'm trying to work towards picking up creating content again. It hasn't been easy for me lately, but I'm determined to continue my quest. In this (a)livestream I will try to show some of my alien beings concepts from the past and present some of my future plans for this channel. Stay tuned!Live Review of Alien Worlds ep 2Phrenotopia2021-01-26 | Doing a livestream where I will attempt to take a closer look at the NetFlix series: Alien Worlds LIVE while keeping an eye on your comments in the chat. This will be on episode 2 and to avoid copyright blocks I created a re-rendering of the interesting bits of the episodes using still frames, text-to-speech and public domain music.Alien Worlds Live Review - ExcerptsPhrenotopia2021-01-21 | Recently I spent a live restream doing a review on "Alien Worlds" of the amazing series on Netflix right now. Unfortunately, the livestream is now blocked, so you probably cannot see it anymore, and it's in any case not promoted by the algorithm. In this production, I've removed all the "offensive bits", so hopefully this will stay up, so you can listen to my commentary.
Website: phrenotopia.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/PhrenotopianLive Review of Alien Worlds (NetFlix)Phrenotopia2021-01-19 | Doing a livestream where I will attempt to take a closer look at the NetFlix series: Alien Worlds LIVE while keeping an eye on your comments in the chat.Alien Biosphere Evolution #8: The Arthropod RecipePhrenotopia2020-12-07 | Arthropods are about as alien to us as another highly evolved bilateral animal can be. That’s undoubtedly the reason why their looks and features are often adopted into science fiction for creating odd-looking extraterrestrial beings. Despite their humble body sizes, arthropods have been extremely successful in populating our biosphere. So given the enormous success of this particular body plan, it's likely that alternate "arthropoids" or "arthropodoids" could enjoy the same success in alien biospheres. It would be a very interesting exercise in speculative zoology to design and tweak such “alternate arthropods” to evolve in different ways. But before we do that, we need to know how our won arthropods, like insects, crustaceans, chelicerates (spiders and scorpions), myriapods and others evolved. It all goes back to the Cambrian Explosion where weird life forms like Anomalocaris and Hallucigenia, but also Priapulids, hold the key to understanding the genesis of this major phylum. So how could these life forms evolve elsewhere? Let’s find out!
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:18 Wonderful Life 4:18 Arthropod Origins Revealed 7:37 Ecdysozoan Roots 10:58 Alternate Arthropods 14:03 The Arthropod Recipe 16:20 Conclusions
REFERENCES (under construction) - Chen et al (2013) "Trace fossil evidence for Ediacaran bilaterian animals with complex behaviors" Precambrian Research Volume 224, January 2013, Pages 690-701 - Harvey THP, Dong X & Donoghue PCJ (2010) "Are palaeoscolecids ancestral ecdysozoans?" Evolution & development doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-142X.2010.00403.x - Smith MR (2015) A palaeoscolecid worm from the Burgess Shale. Palaeontology, 58: 973-979. https://doi:10.1111/pala.12210 - Smith MR & Caron JB (2015) "Hallucigenia’s head and the pharyngeal armature of early ecdysozoans" Nature 523 doi.org/10.1038/nature14573
Footage: - "Title" @yt | URL - "Kinorhyncha, Echinoderes sp" Matthew Lee | youtu.be/H86xOLhFv3E
Music: - "Backyard Safari" by TechSmith - "What Does Anybody Know About Anything" by Chris Zabriskie | http://chriszabriskie.com | CC BY 4.0 - "Digital Memories" by @Unicorn Heads - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumAlien Biosphere Evolution #7: Deep Body Patterning (Evo-Devo)Phrenotopia2020-06-06 | Evolution in alien biospheres elsewhere in the universe will likely result in advanced animal-like beings, just like on Earth. Many animals have attained highly convoluted creature designs that are the result of a well-coordinated cascade of biomolecular patterns expressed during the embryonic development from a single cell. So in order to get an idea of what alien animals or "animaloids" might be like, we’d have to gain some level of understanding of the deep body patterning of living systems as evolved on Earth. So how did single cells become everything from tiny insects to majestic whales? And what are some universal guiding principles for the evolution of animals that we may also expect to apply elsewhere in the universe? Let’s find out!
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:00 The Need for Polarity 4:00 Polarity: How it's Created 7:12 Basic Body Patterning with Morphogens 9:35 The Reaction-Diffusion Model 13:00 Hox Genes & Evo-Devo Insights 15:27 Next episode: Alternate Arthropods
FURTHER READING: - "The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity" (2013) by Douglas Erwin and James Valentine - "On the Origin of Phyla" (2004) by James Valentine - Hueber SD, Weiller GF, Djordjevic MA, Frickey T (2010) "Improving Hox Protein Classification across the Major Model Organisms." PLoS ONE 5(5): e10820 - Turing, Alan (1952). "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. 237 (641): 37–72. - Harrison, L. G. (1993). Kinetic Theory of Living Pattern. Cambridge University Press. - Wartlick, Ortrud et al. “Morphogen gradient formation.” Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology vol. 1,3 (2009): a001255. - K.J. Painter, G.Hunt, K. Wells, J. Johanneson, D.J. Headon (2012). "Towards an integrated experimental–theoretical approach for assessing the mechanistic basis of hair and feather morphogenesis." Interface Focus 2, 433-450. - Detlev Arendt (2018) "Hox genes and body segmentation" Science 28 SEP 2018 : 1310-1311 - He et al (2018) "An axial Hox code controls tissue segmentation and body patterning in Nematostella vectensis" Science 28 Sep 2018: Vol. 361, Issue 6409, pp. 1377-1380 - Genikhovich G & Technau U (2017) "On the evolution of bilaterality" Development 144: 3392-3404
Footage: - "Choanoflagellate movement" courtesy of @microuruguay | youtu.be/ppUFD-rzJuI - "Sphaeroeca volvox" courtesy of @fpelectronica | youtu.be/IZf9newUOUQ - "Sponge Larva responds to light" courtesy of prof Sally Leys @leyslabvideo | youtu.be/hhHP--RHqpU - "Maternal Effects" from Lee SoyoungetEpigenetic regulation of histone H3 serine 10 phosphorylation status by HCF-1 proteins in C. elegans and mammalian cells. PLoS One. 2007;2(11):e1213. Published 2007 Nov 28 - "Turing's labyrinth" by @kjpainter | http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~painter/videos.html - "Turing patterns across parameter space" by @kjpainter (Kevin J Painter) - "Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody)" by @acapellascience | youtu.be/ydqReeTV_vk - "Spore Creature Editor" by @firefish72
Music: - "Backyard Safari" by TechSmith - "What Does Anybody Know About Anything" by Chris Zabriskie | http://chriszabriskie.com | CC BY 4.0 - "Digital Memories" by @Unicorn Heads - "Sprite Star" by @Saibysed | soundcloud.com/saidbysed - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumReal Biologist Amazed by Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Explains Evolution TreePhrenotopia2020-05-03 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the latest installment of Nintendo’s popular game series, now available in high resolutions on the Nintendo Switch. Packed with fun and adventure, while featuring animals and natural history, will it hold up to a more serious look?
Music: - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumTrying out Thrive! - Evolution Simulation Game (when tipsy)Phrenotopia2020-03-31 | I spontaneously tried out this amazing indie evolution simulation game in development. Despite being somewhat tipsy and ill-prepared, I did get pretty far and had a lot of fun already. Definitely gonna try the game again with a clearer head, because I was impressed with what I've seen so far. I will hopefully also do a better job then. Kudos to the game developers, who made a highly playable and scientifically accurate game!
Official website of the game: revolutionarygamesstudio.com Thrive community website: community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com Thrive wikia: thrive.fandom.com/wiki/Thrive_WikiAlien Biosphere Evolution #6: Size and the Modularity of LifePhrenotopia2020-03-25 | When it comes to the evolution of life on Earth or other planets the general rule is that: Probabilities decrease with increasing specificity. The more specific a life form, the less likely it is that it will evolve naturally. A humanoid being, for instance, though often the staple of science fiction, may actually be relatively unlikely, because of the long chain of contingent events needed to arrive at it. That doesn’t mean anything more specific is implausible, but just that we can expect it to be less common in the universe. No matter what, we can be certain about one thing: Life will start out tiny. From mere molecules to minute microbes, life on any exoplanet far, far away, will probably be stuck at microscopic scales at first and remain so for aeons. That is because, starting from such humble beginnings, evolving creatures need to achieve key innovations in order to break through into the macroscopic world. So what are some of the strategies employed by living systems during evolution to attain ever greater sizes and is there a single universal trend? Let's find out!
0:00 Introduction 1:07 Life's microscopic Origins 4:00 Complex Cells 7:12 Multicellularity 9:35 Tissue specialization 11:53 Closing thoughts 12:34 Next video: Deep Body Patterning
REFERENCES (Under Construction!) - ... - Mángano MG & Buatois LA (2014) "Decoupling of body-plan diversification and ecological structuring during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: evolutionary and geobiological feedbacks" Proc. R. Soc. B 281 | http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0038 - ...
Music: - "Backyard Safari" by TechSmith - "What Does Anybody Know About Anything" by Chris Zabriskie | http://chriszabriskie.com | CC BY 4.0 - "Digital Memories" by @Unicorn Heads - "Sprite Star" by @Saibysed | soundcloud.com/saidbysed - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumSurprise Livestream Editing, AMA & Sneak Preview (SPOILERS)Phrenotopia2020-03-20 | ...Alien Biosphere Evolution #5: Are Cambrian Explosions Universal?Phrenotopia2020-02-16 | Bilaterians, the kind of creature we are most familiar with, have dominated the Animal Kingdom for well over half a billion years. But for tens of millions of years, they were just an odd collection of tiny bottom feeders. However, once bilateral symmetry evolved, it was poised and ready to seize the stage. This moment in time is known as “the Cambrian Explosion”. But how exactly did bilaterians manage to take over in the end? What kickstarted the Cambrian Explosion and can we expect the same thing to happen in alien biospheres? Was the Cambrian Explosion destined to happen or just a fortunate fluke? Would bilaterally symmetrical animals always evolve on Earth-like worlds? Let’s try to find out!
CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:07 Origin of Bilaterians 3:25 Causes of the Cambrian Explosion 7:20 Universal Trends for Planetary Biospheres 10:17 Alien Biosphere Evolution 11:37 Closing thoughts
REFERENCES - Prieto-Barajas CM et al (2018) "Microbial mat ecosystems: Structure types, functional diversity, and biotechnological application" Electronic Journal of Biotechnology - 31, 48-56 | doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2017.11.001 - Hoyal Cuthill JF & Morris SC (2017) "Nutrient-dependent growth underpinned the Ediacaran transition to large body size." Nature Ecology and Evolution 1, 1201-1204 - Bobrovskiy et al. (2019) "Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation" Nature Ecology Evolution 3, 582-589 - Chen et al. (2019) "Death march of a segmented and trilobate bilaterian elucidates early animal evolution" Nature 573, 412–415 - Muscente et al (2017) "Environmental disturbance, resource availability, and biologic turnover at the dawn of animal life" Earth-Science Reviews" 177 - Mángano MG & Buatois LA (2014) "Decoupling of body-plan diversification and ecological structuring during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: evolutionary and geobiological feedbacks" Proc. R. Soc. B 281 - Smith MP & Harper DT (2013) "Causes of the Cambrian Explosion" Science - 341, 1355-1356 - Budd G (2013) "At the Origin of Animals: The Revolutionary Cambrian Fossil Record." Current Genomics - 14, 344-354
Music: - "Backyard Safari" by TechSmith - "What Does Anybody Know About Anything" by Chris Zabriskie | http://chriszabriskie.com | CCBY - "Digital Memories" by @Unicorn Heads - "Sprite Star" by @Saibysed | soundcloud.com/saidbysed - "Progressive Chords Lead" by Frankum | soundcloud.com/frankumjay - "Kick and Progressive Leads" by FrankumAlien Biosphere Evolution #4: Constraints Shape Animal PhylaPhrenotopia2020-02-02 | Evolution has no long term direction and no end-goal. It is governed by chance events, both genetic mutations within the organisms themselves and the ever wandering environment they try to survive in. And the same will hold true on other planets as well. With every contingency follows the establishment of novel developmental constraints as creatures become dependent on the very adaptations that were key to its success. But what does this mean in practice? In other words: How do developmental constraints work and how can we apply this biological principle when thinking about the evolution of alien biospheres? Let’s find out!
CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:48 Body Plans as Developmental Constraints 3:40 Arthropod Exoskeleton & Marsupial Birth 6:53 Cambrian Cause & Consequences 9:16 Closing Thoughts: Cambrian Explosions
REFERENCES: - "Developmental origins of precocial forelimbs in marsupial neonates" Keyte et al (2010) Development 137: dev.biologists.org/content/137/24/4283 - "Limb bone scaling in hopping macropods and quadrupedal artiodactyls" Doube et al (24 Oct 2018) Royal Society Open Science 5: http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180152 - "The Cambrian Conundrum: Early Divergence and Later Ecological Success in the Early History of Animals" Erwin et al (2011) | science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6059/1091.full - "The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity" (2013) by Douglas Erwin and James Valentine
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Replace Humanity? | ft. @TheScienceVersePhrenotopia2019-12-15 | Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming sentient and
subsequently subduing humanity is a very common trope in science fiction. In the Terminator movies e.g. it's "Skynet" that rises up and starts destroying humanity and in The Matrix franchise human beings are just enslaved by intelligent machines. What about this notion that we will eventually create thinking machines that are sufficiently complex for developing consciousness and their very own motivations and agenda. What is the likelihood of this happening given the current state of our scientific knowledge and technology?
This is a collab with channel @TheScienceVerse who will delve more deeply into AI itself here: youtube.com/watch?v=p3veQAuTV0I The angle in my own video will be based from evolutionary biology and philosophy. As it stands, there are several salient properties of the mind as resident in human brains that are missing from contemporary computer systems. First of all, there are our emotions being the result of billions of years of natural evolution. Six core emotions were already defined by Charles Darwin himself, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness and sadness, and these also star in Pixar's "Inside Out" movie. Sadness ties in with empathy, which, according to primate researcher Frans de Waal, is correlated with awareness.
In fact, conscious awareness, consciousness, or subjective experience form perhaps the greatest mystery of our nervous system. Scholars like Daniel Dennett, Max Tegmark and others argue that this is merely an illusion. However, as a combination of non-determinism and conscious agency, it remains unknown how thought processes work. In the words of Heather Berlin: "It’s still one of the greatest mysteries how this three-pound piece of matter can give us all our subjective experiences, thoughts, and emotions". At the same time, we're nowhere near "Artificial General Intelligence". For instance, many AI researchers admit the limitations of ("narrow") AI and specifically "machine learning". Nevertheless, futurists like Ray Kurzweil will expect machine consciousness to arise naturally on very short term, calling it the "Singularity".
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:16 3:42 The Roles of Emotions 6:00 Empathy & Higher Emotions 9:05 Consciousness & Free Will 11:32 Will AI Replace Us? 13:32 Outro
Footage:
- "I, Robot" (2004) - 20th Century Fox - "Gary Kasparov beaten by IBM Deep Blue" | BBC News - "Atlas doing Parkour" | Boston Dynamics - "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) - Warner Bros - "Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - Universal Sony Pictures - "Frankenstein" (1931) - Universal Pictures - "The Matrix" (1999) - Warner Bros - "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1990) - CBS / Paramount - "Inside Out" (2015) - Pixar / Walt Disney Pictures - http://www.pixabay.com
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Alien Biosphere Evolution #3: Contingency Decides Lifes FatePhrenotopia2019-11-09 | The Cambrian explosion, often called the “Big Bang” of biology, marks the period when the earliest animals diversified into a remarkably wide range of different life forms, leading to the major phyla known today. Famed paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould made the case that the Early Cambrian was exceptional and saw it as a biological lottery. Historical contingency would make it unlikely that anything like human species would arise again. Although somewhat exaggerated, contingency does play an important role as do the developmental constraints that flow from these events. Convergent evolution on the other hand would result in superficially similar results nonetheless. So when speculating about alien biospheres how can we apply the interplay of contingency, constraints and convergence? How can we use actual scientific insights into worldbuilding projects? Let’s find out!
CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:16 Gould & Cambrian Contingency 2:52 Human Exceptionalism 5:20 The Tetrapod Conquest of Land 6:41 Evolution's Lack of Direction 9:33 Closing Thoughts
REFERENCES: - "Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History" (1989) by Stephen Jay Gould - "The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity" (2013) by Douglas Erwin and James Valentine
Footage: - "Proconvoluta primitiva" by @haplorhini1 | youtube.com/watch?v=85BrSaoS4Fg - "Back to the Future part III" (1990) Universal Pictures - "Frankenstein" (1931) Universal Pictures - "The Simpsons" S9 E8: "Lisa the Skeptic" (1997) 20th Century Fox - "Howard the Duck" (1986) - Universal Pictures - "X-Men" (2000) - 20th Century Fox - "The Great British Year" Episode 4 (2013) - BBC One: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01db10t/episodes/guide - pixabay.com/videos
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Other Worlds #1: Rise of Science Fiction & AstrobiologyPhrenotopia2019-10-27 | Life on other worlds: Is it merely a fantasy playground for science fiction writers or does actual science have a say in the matter too? And how far can we even speculate about life elsewhere from a scientific point of view? When and how did mankind even become aware of the existence of other worlds and their potential inhabitants? In other words: What led to the rise of both science fiction and astrobiology?
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:35 The Deep Roots of Science Fiction 2:55 Exploration & Enlightenment 4:25 Pioneers of Science Fiction 6:55 Space Race
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own. Please don't reuse any content without checking its respective terms & conditions.4K Q&A LivestreamPhrenotopia2019-10-26 | As promised, I will do a livestream answering any questions from viewers. I didn't get a lot of feedback yet, so I will just livestream me editing videos and anyone who pops will get special attention.When YouTubes Algorithm Gods Bless Your ChannelPhrenotopia2019-10-22 | My channel views are spiking at the moment as is my subs count and this is what it feels like!
--------------- About Phrenotopia:
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Musical theme by bdProductions licensed through AudioJungle.net
Outro by Frankum Jay
IMAGES:
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL:
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Phrenotopia Channel Trailer 2019Phrenotopia2019-10-19 | Welcome to Phrenotopia!
A realm of endless possibilities, where our imagination can take us everywhere we’d like only tempered by the rigour of science and human knowledge. I am “PhrenoMythic”, the ruler of this land! And I gracefully allow you to take a peek into my realm to explore speculative science, alternate history, alien biology, pop culture symbolism and more!
So feel free to wander around the country-side and learn more about the topics that have always fascinated me, and hopefully you as well, such as: - How would life evolve on other planets? - And how plausible are the depictions of alien life forms in science fiction and games? - How does popular culture stack up against science anyway? - And could history have taken a different course if we changed the outcome of key events in the past? - Does the story-telling of fantasy movies and shows reflect our mental processes in some way?
Speculative science is the central theme of my channel, where I apply mainstream science & humanities to analyse topics as diverse as astrobiology, alternate history and pop culture symbolism. My main focus right now is on alien biosphere evolution, but I will also regularly revisit alternate history, which is the most popular topic on my channel.
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.ADHD Trek: When The Medication Kicks InPhrenotopia2019-10-06 | Just making fun of my little affliction/superpower. ;-)
New awesome videos are right around the corner. I just need a little more time to get around to them. Stay tuned!!!
Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 Episode 1: "Spock's Brain" produced by NBC & owned by CBS
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL:
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.4K Live Q&A Announcement & NewsPhrenotopia2019-09-20 | ...What If South Africa Never Had Apartheid? | Alternate AfterthoughtPhrenotopia2019-02-10 | Modern day South Africa is in a mess! The hopeful Rainbow Nation of Nelson Mandela has succumbed to corruption and incompetent governance. The ruling ANC party under Jacob Zuma has become complacent, while great social inequality and poverty persists. Extremist and populist fringes like Julius Malema's EFF are now on the rise and seem to be setting the agenda for the country.
The nation is clearly still struggling to overcome its historical legacy of apartheid, segregation and brutal oppression. Under former minority rule, the black majority has been systematically disenfranchised and exploited as cheap labour force.
But what if South Africa had instead been at the forefront of civil rights from its very inception and apartheid had never been introduced? With the the entire populace empowered in building its society from the get go, could South Africa have become a modern African superpower?
------------------------- Also please check out this video, where I talk more about how South Africa could have ended up with just four official languages instead of the current eleven: youtube.com/watch?v=sJMXHeH2RSE
Video Chapters: 0:00 Prelude 0:48 Introduction 2:50 Historical Background 6:00 Alternate Point of Divergence 1 9:12 Resulting Developments 11:40 Federation of South Africa 13:48 Closing Thoughts
********* CREDITS *********
MUSIC:
Intro: "The National Anthem" - Coleske (UMG) http://www.coleskeartists.co.za/
4. "Language and National Unity in a Post-Apartheid South Africa" Eric P. Louw (1992) - Critical Arts http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Critical%20Arts/cajv6n1/caj006001004.pdf
5. "Language Policy and National Unity in South Africa/Azania" Neville Alexander (1989) http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/language-policy-and-national-unity-south-africa-neville-alexander
6. "Bantu Babel. Will the Bantu languages live?" Nhlapo J (1944) - Cape Town: The African Bookman
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL:
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.EduTubers Try GeoGuessr | Phrenomythic & KhAnubisPhrenotopia2018-07-05 | Two EduTubers who know a thing or two on geography and languages should really ace this GeoGuessr game, right? Wrong. Thankfully Willie Rates from @KhAnubis was here to help me out.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: twitter.com/Phrenomythic Facebook: facebook.com/Phrenomythic Reddit: reddit.com/r/Phrenomythic Tumblr: http://phrenomythic.tumblr.comFace Reveal + Announcement Hangout PZ Myers!Phrenotopia2018-06-21 | Finally a face reveal together with the announcement of a hangout with @PZMyersBiology, professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo) at the University of Minnesota. We're gonna talk alien evolution, body plans, all the while blending science and fiction!
SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: twitter.com/Phrenomythic Facebook: facebook.com/Phrenomythic Reddit: reddit.com/r/Phrenomythic Tumblr: http://phrenomythic.tumblr.comAlien Biosphere Evolution #2: Building Body PlansPhrenotopia2018-06-13 | Are humanoid aliens the unavoidable epitome of evolution on all Earth-like planets or can we expect some radically different body organizations of sentient extraterrestrials? In part 2 of the video series on alien evolution, we will be look at the human body plan and any alternative adaptations the animal kingdom on Earth provides. What is the evolutionary and developmental background for the way our different bodies are put together? How can we use these insights for speculative evolution and speculative zoology in an alien biosphere in our worldbuilding projects? Let's find out!
Video Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:55 Basic Body Plans 4:56 Universal Evolutionary Patterns 9:41 Unpredictable Aspects of Evolution 12:27 Conclusions 13:14 Outro
IMAGES: Derek Keats - "Coral and sponge at Little Brother, Red Sea, Egypt" flickr.com/photos/dkeats/6211798112 Proporus sp. - Curini-Galletti et al. (2012) "Patterns of Diversity in Soft-Bodied Meiofauna: Dispersal Ability and Body Size Matter." PLoS ONE
Acoel flatworm Neochildia fusca. Egger, B. et al. (2009). "To be or not to be a Flatworm: the acoel controversy." PLoS ONE 4 (5): e5502.
Meara stichopi. "Development and juvenile anatomy of the nemertodermatid Meara stichopi (Bock) Westblad 1949 (Acoelomorpha)." Børve A, Hejnol A - Front. Zool. (2014)
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL:
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Childhood Memories of World War 2Phrenotopia2018-05-16 | My father is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. About a month ago, he was finally admitted to a nursing home, because of the advanced state of his illness. Eight months earlier, I had a session with him recording his earliest childhood memories. This was during World War 2 and the occupation of the Netherlands by German forces. I have always been fascinated by his recollections of the brutal occupation and abandoned war material. I wanted to share his experiences with you all.Alien Biosphere Evolution #1: Are Humanoids Plausible?Phrenotopia2018-05-07 | Lovers of science fiction in both literature and the cinema are pretty much used to sentient alien creatures being pretty much similar to humans: So-called humanoids. We know them from star trek, but also from star wars. In this video, we're going to take a scientific look at the question whether humanoid aliens are at all plausible. Can we get an answer from genetics? By looking at human DNA, can we get an idea of what it takes to create a humanoid species?
What is the likelihood of the evolution of such creatures on another planet in outer space? Is there any plausible reason why aliens would evolve to look like us? Already on our own planet Earth, our upright stature and bipedal stance with two arms and hands is pretty much unique, even among primates.
This is the first video in a series that will analyse the human body plan to assess how many conceivable alternatives there are for each element. We'll look at how we can use these insights for speculative evolution and speculative zoology in alien biospheres for scientifically plausible worldbuilding scenarios.
Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.What if Vikings stayed in America - part 2 | Alternate AfterthoughtPhrenotopia2018-03-03 | So what if the Vikings had stayed in North America after all? This is the continuation of the alternate history scenario I featured in an earlier video. It is based on Jared Diamonds ideas put forward in his book "Guns, germs and steel" where he postulates that geography had put many indigenous peoples at a disadvantage once European colonists arrived, especially the Native Americans or Indians of the Americas.
For starters, the natives had limited access to useful livestock like horses and cattle. They also missed out on innovations like iron metallurgy and the wheel, to name a few. To make things worse, they had no immunity to imported diseases like smallpox decimating entire populations. The Norsemen or Vikings settlement in North America, or present day Eastern Canada, could have injected not only Eurasian technologies into the Americas, but also inoculated them with immunity to smallpox, thanks to the cowpox they could have brought over.
This would have made a major impact on many indigenous cultures and civilizations like the Eastern Woodland culture, the Mississippian culture, the Mesoamerican Maya and Aztec civilization and the Incas of South America. The original Norse Americans would be mostly confined to the North East of North America. Once European colonial powers would eventually arrive they would find a completely different situation from that in our own timeline.
Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Is Zwarte Piet Racist Or Not? - Response To History With HilbertPhrenotopia2018-01-31 | This is a response video to one of my YouTube buddies "History With Hilbert" about the character of "Zwarte Piet" or "Black Pete". This is part of an old tradition in the Netherlands, Belgium and surrounding areas and part of the festival of Saint-Nicholas or Sinterklaas. Hilbert argues that the tradition is not racist, whereas I disagree and attempt to show that it has roots in 19th century racist stereotypes. Even though generally speaking racism is not intended by the people carrying the tradition forward.
No evidence stamp: brucedwatson.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/evidence-free-voc-ed-training-privatisation-policyLife on other Planets | Hangout with Astro-BiologicalPhrenotopia2018-01-19 | Life on other Planets: How could it have evolved? This is what we're gonna talk about in this hangout, where I am joined by Ben who has a channel called @AstroBiological dedicated to biology, astronomy and of course astrobiology.
COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Science Of It (2017) Explained! - Part 1: PsychoanalysisPhrenotopia2017-10-27 | This is the first part of a video series on the science of the 2017 movie "It" explaining the movie symbolism by loosely applying psychoanalysis and speculative psychology. It is also part of the WeCreateEdu Halloween theme playlist of 2017!
So what is the deeper meaning of the movie based in Stephen King's novel? If the events in the movie around the creature called "It" are to be taken as a metaphor of our inner mind processes, what can we deduce from its plot and symbolics? Let's take a closer look at It!
DISCLAIMER:
Psychoanalysis, despite its importance in the early development of psychology, is generally no longer considering truly scientific.
Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.2000 subs! - Office Reveal + Viking Fair visitPhrenotopia2017-10-09 | ...Subnautica: Alien Fauna AnalysisPhrenotopia2017-09-04 | Subnautica is an immensely popular survival game receiving high ratings everywhere. A big part of its appeal is its fascinating fauna and flora, that both feels realistic and is mesmerizing at the same time. But what if Subnautica played out in real life and planet 4546b actually existed? Would the fantastic biodiversity featured in Subnautica be realistic enough to pass as an actually evolved ecosystem? Or is it just another “Frankenstein Fauna”?
Clearly, there is a lot of room for speculation allowing for the invention of a fitting evolutionary history for the entire fauna of Subnautica.
Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.The Origin of DragonsPhrenotopia2017-08-06 | Dragons are legendary beasts found in mythologies from all over Europe and Asia. Ancient stories of giant serpents probably laid the groundworks for what in medieval times developed into dragons. But from these archaic beginnings how did we arrive at the winged, fire-breathing monstrous reptilians that we nowadays imagine when thinking of dragons? That is actually an interesting story!
The video begins with the Norse god Thor trying to slay the middle earth serpent Jórmungandr using his trusted hammer Mjolnir according to Viking lore.
My YouTube buddy Cogito has made an interesting video on how Thor got Mjolnir that you can watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=hdYgWvAceaE
Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Mantis Shrimp Color Vision: Really Superior? | Alien AnalysisPhrenotopia2017-04-20 | Would alien beings evolved on another planet see the “world” the same way as we do? Here on Earth at least, there are many examples of creatures with superior vision compared to us humans.
One group of species that has become especially famous are mantis shrimp. Web comic artist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal already mused about how the Mantis Shrimp must see a “thermonuclear bomb of light and beauty”.
The reason given for this is that their compound eyes have 12 different kinds of photoreceptors each attuned to different frequencies of light. Humans only have a “measly” 3. So it is assumed that mantis shrimp colour vision must be both completely alien and spectacular!
But is that really so? And what would this mean for colour vision in extraterrestrial beings? Let's find out!
Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.Republic of Patagonia - Alternate Country | Alternate AfterthoughtPhrenotopia2017-03-20 | We are used to seeing South America as an almost entirely “Latin”-speaking continent with Spanish and Portuguese dominating as official languages. However, with some small tweaks of history, large swaths could have been speaking Dutch! One example is Brazil, which briefly was in Dutch hands mid 17th century. But not many are aware that the Dutch also could have taken the entire southern quarter of the length of South America! Introducing the Republic of Patagonia.
The alternate country of Dutch Patagonia is the result of a different outcome to a historic event that took place in 1643: The death by disease of Dutch explorer Admiral Hendrik Brouwer. Some time before that, the Dutch had just successfully made a bridgehead on the west coast of the South American continent being equipped in Dutch Brazil.
Lured by reports of silver and even gold in heaps, they had successfully captured the island of Chiloé from the Spanish. To achieve this, Brouwer had negotiated with the Mapuche natives to secure their cooperation. His aim was to create a settlement on the ruins of the Spanish city of Valdivia on the mainland. Valdivia had been abandoned earlier during uprisings of Mapuche and other native tribes.
In this alternate timeline, the settlement persists. The now surviving Brouwer kept his men in check and smoothed things over with the Mapuche, resulting in a partnership lasting for centuries.
COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.1000 subs + Q&A + Vikings! Vikings! Vikings!Phrenotopia2017-03-07 | Two weeks ago, for some reason, my channel views started going through the roof! It was mainly my video on Vikings in North America published half a year ago, that got the extra traffic. This video was already doing well, being at a comfortable 50-60 views per day, but ever since february the 18th this has gone to several thousands!
The reason has probably got to do with the YouTube algorithm, because apparently this video is being suggested more often to viewers on YouTube.
For those of you wondering why I don’t have more subscribers, well, first of all thanks for the compliments. Second of all, it is just really hard getting discovered, and as YouTuber you are really at the mercy of the algorithm. You can of course help out by sharing the videos on social media and get the word out!
Anyways, the extra traffic really boosted my subscriber count. In the course of a week, it count doubled and over the following week, it quadrupled! And now I am here, at well over a 1000 subs !
So I wanted to make this video to say thanks and also do a little Q&A with the questions I have been getting in the comment section.Alien Life on Proxima b: A Second Earth or Waterworld? | Alien AnalysisPhrenotopia2017-02-20 | Proxima b, also known as Proxima Centauri b, is the closest known exoplanet to our solar system that may be habitable to life as we know it. However, there are many challenges to overcome for biology to gain a foothold and evolution to be kickstarted. Because Proxima Centauri is a much dimmer Red Dwarf star, the habitable zone, where most water exists in liquid form, is many times closer to the star. Therefore, Proxima b will likely be both tidally locked, and pounded by solar flares, coronal mass ejections and ultraviolet radiation from its much more active host star. Also, it is possible that this exoplanet is a waterworld meaning that its mineral core is covered by ice. How could a planet drowned by water and irradiated from space be able to overcome these problems and host life? One possible solution may be surprising...
Side note: The recent news on the 7 earth-sized exoplanets around the nearby red dwarf star Trappist-1 is also highly significant in this light. Like Proxima b, the exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1 would probably also be tidally locked too and thus provide the same conditions.
COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.The Deeper Meaning of Star Wars IV: A New Hope (Pt 2) | PhrenomythicPhrenotopia2017-01-20 | So What does “Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope” really mean? In part 2 of this video series we are going seriously dive into the psychoanalysis of this epic movie. Equipped with armchair psychology, we will try to explain what mental aspects of our psyche the different movie characters stand for. We will involve ideas put forward by Sigmund Freud as well as Carl Jung. The idea of the monomyth by Joseph Campbell will not be used, and instead a different approach, termed the "phrenomyth" is applied.
------------------------------------------- VIDEO SPOILERS BELOW ------------------------------------------ In this video, we depart from where we left off in part 1. Here we established the first Freudian Trio of the movie, namely Uncle Owen, Luke Skywalker and Aunt Beru standing for our Superego, Ego and Id, respectively. Luke then switches to Obiwan Kenobi as a new Superego character, standing for our confidence, and Han Solo, accompanied by Chewbacca, as a new Id character, standing for our passion. The latter's relation to Jabba the Hutt is also mentioned as it symbolized the danger of being consumed by our passions and self-indulgence.
Then Obiwan Kenobi himself is replaced by Princess Leia Organa, who more specifically stands for our sense of Pride. Having been imprisoned by the Evil Empire is the symbolism of not allowing ourselves to be proud and to be subject to self-critique instead. The Death Star is a symbol of this internal critical eye that keeps us down, if we're not careful.
Darth Vader is also identified as the archetype of the Shadow, originally proposed by Carl Jung. This is the anathema designed to keep us in our place. The meaning of the Force and how we can defeat our inner Evil Empire or feelings of low self-esteem is explained in a followup bonus video.
CREDITS: Ambient music by bdProductions Intro & Outro music by Allen Grey All licensed through AudioJungle.net
Other materials deemed to be public domain or covered by "Fair Use".
COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.
DISCLAIMER: I am neither a psychology expert nor a professional movie critic For any mental issues stemming from early life or contracted by watching these videos, please see a professional therapist. For an informed movie review, find a good movie critic.