The Alien’s Guide to the Human
The Alien’s Guide to the Human A non-biased view of the human being. Every other page in this section was written by a human about humans, which means every other page is, to some degree, compromised. We cannot help flattering ourselves, or in the modern fashion, theatrically loathing ourselves, which is just flattery wearing […]
The Earth
The Earth Contents I. The Shield That Made the Surface Safe II. The Great Cycles III. The Web of Life IV. The River Theory V. The Role We Have in the System VI. Cross-Links Our home, and how the elements tie together into one living system. The four pages before this one pulled the […]
The Sun
The Sun Contents I. The Furnace and the Gradient II. The Gateway: Photosynthesis III. Captured Sunlight, Flowing and Fading IV. Light as Information V. Holding it Together: Gravity VI. You Are Running on Sunlight VII. Cross-Links The accelerant of entropy for everything that lives here. Nearly everything alive on this planet is running on […]
The Ground
The Ground Contents I. Soil Is Alive II. The Underground Trade Network III. Where Rock Becomes Life and Life Becomes Rock IV. The Ground Beneath Civilisation V. The Sacred Earth VI. Cross-Links Soil, carbon, and the slow stone engine: the living skin of the planet. We treat the ground as the definition of dead, […]
The Ocean
The Ocean Contents I. The Sea We Came From II. The Great Reservoir III. The Water Cycle Runs Through You IV. The Largest Habitat on Earth V. The Body and the Sea VI. Cross-Links The medium that all life on the planet came from, and still depends on. We named the planet wrong. Seen […]
The Air
The Air Contents I. The Air is Made of Life II. What the Air Is Now III. The Ocean of Air, and Its Weight IV. The Great Heat Engine V. The Air and You VI. Cross-Links Temperature, weather, air currents, and pressure, and how the atmosphere itself was made by life. Of all the […]
Evolution & Genetics
Evolution & Genetics Contents I. How Evolution Seems to Work II. What a Gene Does III. Sex, and Why It Is Worth the Trouble IV. The Evolution of Cooperation V. What Is an Organism, and What Is Behaviour? VI. The Major Transitions VII. Where This Leads VIII. What We Do Not Know IX. The Impartial […]
LUCA & the Energy Bubbles
LUCA & the Energy Bubbles Contents I. What Life Is II. The Ingredients III. The Competing Hypotheses IV. The Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent Theory V. Replication First, or Metabolism First? VI. LUCA: The Last Universal Common Ancestor VII. The First Glimmer of Sensing VIII. What We Do Not Know IX. The Impartial Observer’s Takeaway X. Cross-Links […]
Energy Factories
Energy Factories Contents I. The Deal of a Lifetime II. Why Energy Was the Bottleneck III. How Energy Gets Made IV. Mitochondria as Entropy Engines V. The Maternal Line VI. What We Do Not Know VII. The Impartial Observer’s Takeaway VIII. Cross-Links Mitochondria, chloroplasts, and the deal of a lifetime. The previous page named the […]
The Life Origin Rabbit Hole
The Life Origin Rabbit Hole Contents I. What Is Life, Really? The Definition Problem II. Viruses: The Edge Case That Breaks the Categories III. The Abiogenesis Hypotheses, Pushed Further IV. Predictive Life: The Free Energy Principle Revisited V. Dissipation-Driven Adaptation Revisited VI. Inevitable, or a Fluke? VII. The Great Filter and Are We Alone VIII. […]