For half the time I wish to teach people about the history and practice of speculative evolution (spec), a niche type of art where people apply the logic and theory of biology to fictional worlds, hypothetical futures, and/or alien planets. This would be a brief overview of a few of the most famous/best works in the discipline, from the first work Rhinogradentia by Gerolf Steiner, to the most famous The Future is Wild, to Serina: A Natural History Of The World Of Birds by Dylan Bajda, After Man by Dougal Dixon, Biblaridion's Alien Biosphere's series, Keenan Taylor's Tales of Kaimere, and C. M. Kösemen's Snaiad. For each, I will describe some of their approaches to both the art and science sides of spec.

Then with the other half of the time, I wish to, with audience participation, create an spec encyclopedia of life in a fictional setting. The audience will get to chose between Future Earth, No KPG Asteroid, Alien World, and Fake Island, with just informal polling deciding which setting. I will lead the group socratically, asking about the abiotic conditions of the world, which organisms have survived to the present time, and then when a scenario is created, break up the audience into smaller groups (mostly free association), give them some clipboards, pencils, and paper, and have them go buckwild writing entries for the encyclopedia. I will wander between the groups, questioning them on what they are making, and providing what knowledge I can. Then ten minutes before time, I will stop the writing, and have everyone just share their creations with one another.

After Paideia, I want to gather these papers, write them up in a text document, scan the images, and put them on a google site, and post the link as an ad around campus, just to share with people what we did. Instructor: Griffin Hunter