How Michael Crichton plugged a sci-fi gap

[@goblin8161]

My favorite activity to do when reading a Chrichton novel is to identify which character is his anti climate change self insert

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

🙃 Or which female character is his ex-wife

[@miquelescribanoivars5049]

​@@unnaturalhistorychannel Oh... That explains so much about the plot of Prey 💀

[@WoodCock76]

Is he anti climate change as in he hates it or he doesn't believe in it?

[@jackkokyb]

2:42

[@aphato2770]

That thumbnail already screams "graphic design is my passion". Can't wait to watch the video

[@nitesy381]

welcome to Unnatural History Channel. That is his brand of thumbnail.

[@RickRaptor105]

Whenever Jurassic Park was on German TV, our various TV guides would list it as "Thriller", "Adventure" or "Fantasy", but never "Sci Fi". A story built around actual fields of science, but laymen's concept of "sci fi" has been completely warped to mean "aliens, spaceships or robots".

[@pinkfridge6111]

Micheal Chrichton seems like the Antithesis to Jules vernes. While Jules Vernes books mostly Cover the positive and heroic side of science, Micheal recognized the shortcomings of the human mind and rightfully criticized those that played with scientific topics larger than themselves

[@elijahcafazzo-joyette8226]

I think that the bar for entry to biological sci-fi is higher. To put it simply, if a kid draws a spaceship that doesn’t make aeronautical sense it would be considered sci-fi, but if the kid draws a weird made-up animal you generally consider it fantasy, not spec-evo. Biological sci-fi has to prove it isn’t fantasy, whereas physics/chem just kinda has to show up and can draw on so many unrelated aspects to fulfill it’s tropes and plot devices.

[@aragoonn]

I did a stargate sg-1 rewatch recently. And the thing that stood out to me this time was how often the episode's drama becomes a medical/biology issue. It was surprisingly refreshing, even after 25 years, the concept of all the weird pathogens wed be risking bringing back from alien worlds is underutilized, i think.

[@Hooy-H00y]

ooh fancy graphic design for this video

[@megadracosaurus]

A good video, I was really looking forward to it! But I do disagree a bit that animal behavior wasn't a big part of the first book of JP. However, the context was very different. In the first book, the topic of captive animal behavior and the husbandry of captive animals does come up quite a bit. There are indeed less references to wild behavior and ecology. But the dinosaurs are captive animals in the book. In the second book, when the dinosaurs can roam wildly, ecology naturally appears a lot more, on the account the book doesn't deal with captive animals.

[@evanmaus4794]

I'm currently working on a novel about zoology and ecology that's that follows a retired naturalist taking his overworked son on a globe trotting adventure to see wildlife first hand in the wild but I added a bit of fantasy by having the two main characters have the ability to talk to animals

[@Lioleusu]

I like how you didn't show anything time travel related because of the lack of non AI-images, that gave this a level of authenticity I feel a lot of videos lack nowadays, also I didn't recognise it was one of your videos at first with the thumbnail style 😭

[@GallowglassVT]

it's worth pointing out that Ursula K Le Guin did some work on biology in sci-fi in The Left Hand of Darkness, but that more to do with human biology and the effects it had on the culture and society of the planet's inhabitants.

[@t-r-e-x452]

0:52. Time travel: Prehistoric Park, Primeval, H.G Wells The Time Machine, etc.

[@Klinker0913]

Another interesting vid UHC! I don't have the money to support you on patreon but I want you to know that your videos are always a treat to listen to. I'm currently in college getting my degree in animal ecology and this channel has reinforced my passion for it.

[@jennak.5530]

thank you so much uhc. i love your videos and watch them pretty much on repeat while game and am at work. but today i had the first anxiety attack i’ve had in a while, but your video is helping me calm down. keep up the good work! :)

[@samwill7259]

Somehow I have never seen a picture of Aasimov before. Look at that man's MUTTON CHOPS. My god he looks like a general from the Crimean War

[@trenchmouse2438]

Just finished up with Eaters of the Dead and you post a Michael Crichton vid. Awesome

[@blademaster4361]

I think it's a mistake to characterize solid, chracter-focused writing as a hallmark of science fantasy exclusively. Hard sci fi wordbuilding can be included in basically any setting without compromising story. Similarly, those elements don't need to be the center of the plot for the work to be called hard sci fi.

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

Thinking on it, this was a mistake in my wording. I didn’t mean to imply hard sci fi dropped quality character building, only that it wasn’t the single intention.

[@rainbowkrampus]

Do you have any examples? Because I struggle to think of any books I've read where the need to explain the world doesn't become somewhat of an imposition on narrative/characterization. Typically, if a book doesn't go about centering its hard sci-fi conceits, there isn't enough "there" there to make a compelling case that it really is a hard sci-fi. At best, the harder elements are doled out piecemeal across a series of novels. In which case, the apparent "hardness" is more of an emergent property rather than one which can really be identified from examining any given book.

[@blademaster4361]

@rainbowkrampus Any setting can take science seriously without centering the mechanics of science in their storytelling. The movie Avatar is so unsciency that it could take place in any setting, but its very first shots are of an interstellar starship with functioning radiators and a scientifically plausible laser propulsion system. These are never mentioned in the story, but they remain in the background and bolster the setting, like any other aesthetic. A lot of early sci-fi does similar stuff, since tropes were so nonexistent writers just defaulted to scientific norms where convenient. You see it a lot in Gundam-adjacent media, too. Of course, none of these works have many interesting things to say about science, aside from the plausible futures they propose. Even series like the Expanse fall into this category, using hard science more as an extensively-researched backdrop for their more human-based plots. But I think that's all they really need to do to be considered hard sci-fi

[@JTRemillard]

I love techno thrillers! Crichton makes sci-fi accessible to everyone.

[@toymagmadon07]

1:22 I got jumpscared by Isaac Asimov, it was good sci fi writer, and without him, there woudn't be modern sci fi where's today

[@Dragnarok1]

The laws of robotics reminds me of the laws of "puppets" in Lies of P. But based on the order below we all know how that turned out. First law: All puppets must obey their creator's commands. Second law: A puppet may not harm a human. Third law: A puppet must protect and serve humans and the city of Krat. Fourth law: A puppet cannot lie.

[@jameswilliams2075]

A book series you might be interested in is fragment and it's sequel pandimonium they go over a modern lost world type story but it's starts with more modern methods but by the end due to the dangerous ecology it regressed to just documenting what's there as the island in the first book sense it is a scifi death world style island

[@Banished-rx4ol]

Whoa going all out with that thumbnail I see. Crichton the man the myth the legend

[@Murderoreo1]

My favourite KZbinr talks about my favourite author! What a day!

[@isaacthedestroyerofstuped7676]

Thank you for making me put another bookshelf in my cart! I'll need one after all the books you referenced 😅

[@DaimlerSamsel]

If you're looking for another biology themed science fiction book I absolutely loved reading Micro that was finished after he died. The shrunken jungle adventure in the Hawaiian leaf litter was a story that I hadn't really considered before, or seen since.

[@rainbowkrampus]

Honey I Shrunk the Kids?

[@DaimlerSamsel]

@@rainbowkrampus Just with the most terrifying description of a centipede attack I've ever considered

[@NathanCassidy721]

To be a bit semantic, I would call Star Wars and other works like Dune a Space Opera. It’s only “sci-fi” in that it takes place in space, has aliens as opposed to mythic creatures, But the “science” around it is more akin to magic. Soft Sci-Fi I would categorize as “The writer paid enough attention in Science class to recognize that using real world examples in fiction are cool. But to fill in the gaps, they just make up something that could be plausible.” The prime example of this is Star Trek, which has influenced real technological changes like tablets. Hard Sci-Fi I would categorize as “The author took a PhD in the subject before committing pen to paper because they are that autistic with the details.” Examples of this would be anything by Issac Asimov.

[@olivierbajet8851]

Great video and I am glad that you mentioned zoology's colonial roots. Have you read "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky? It's the only scifi I've read that interestingly deals with the concept of evolution.

[@avarisclari]

Related, but I remember being surprised when I learned of an *archaeological* sci-fi book. "Across A Billion Years" by Robert Silverberg

[@darkkwaknight]

Sorry lads can't come to the party UHC just uploaded

[@BritishLad82]

Crichton will always be my favourite author, no contest there

[@formersamonellaclone]

0:54 protip: there’s an extension that lets you block websites and image search results like ai images

[@Dragnarok1]

What's it called?

[@megadracosaurus]

Name please? :3

[@Fwufikins]

You can also type "-AI" and "-Prompt" after whatever you're searching for. For example: Googling "Tyrannosaurus -AI -Prompt" will trim out *most* of the AI generated results. It's not a perfect solution, since a lot of AI-bro types intentionally neglect to tag their work as AI, but it's better than nothing.

[@michelangelodealberti310]

What is the name

[@rainbowkrampus]

Brave Search is generally pretty good about excluding those things by default.

[@guregan634]

I always made this comment about the first alien movie, which is my favorite : It's litterally just the xenomorph's life cycle, and we're watching it from the point of view of the host and prey of this weird predatory/parasitoid species. The eggs are found, one of them finds a host, hatches, becomes a larva, then the adult takes over, and the eggmorphing scene shows us the cycle n+1. Then as is often said ion this channel, once you have a prey that fights back, there's always a non zero chance of finding the prey that will kill or incapacitate completely the host. Here with the destruction of the Nostromo and the ejection of the Xenomorph in space, which at the time was enough to keep it dead. A risk to the hunt, there are still thousands of other eggs to try a succesful infestation again. Then it's about killing the termite monsters with marines, and then the Predator comes into play.A bit less interesting in my opinion, but Parasites and viruses are these ugly babies I love with all of my heart. so who knows, maybe we'll see a new "exciting" biological tale one day, horror and zoology already make a great marriage, we could find others.

[@hihello-uw7tc]

the king has posted

[@davidegaruti2582]

Ok as an amateur writer and a biology entusiast i think i have a couple of disjointed tiughts i want to share : 1) genra as we talk about it today can refer to many different things : it can refer to the set dressing (historical drama, science fiction, xenofiction, science fiction) The structure of the story (classical tragedy and comedy, whoddoneit ? , mystery) The events of the story (splatter action and pornography) And the tone of the story (comedy , horror , thriller) And as such i solidly belive when writing genra should be disregarded , and it should be applied post as a lense of analisis post facto ... And analisis is famously done on finished texts , wich is what blocks writers ... 2) given how genra isn't real i think a story that values the application of logic and math to empirical observations to understand the world and solve problems can be classified as sci fi , on a broader lense naturally : My first tought is a martial art story about figuring out the game of the opponent and figuring out appropriate countermeasures to it , Or rock climbing , Or cooking or making clothes or really anywhere in wich the conflict happens in the real world and people aren't involved ... I feel the translation of science into these terms is more useful than the old stereotype of white lab coat+goggles+coloured vials ... One makes science into a skill every human on earth can do and improve at by knowing about biases more advanced math and measurment techniques , The other just creates a new form of magic ... 3) this video refers to zoology more specifically , but i think there is a rather important factor in biology wich differentiates it from the other hard sciences : Biology is the subject . You can write a story from the pov of a bird or a crab , taking into account how it would likely see the world and what it can and can't understand , this has been done already , It gets harder to write it from the pov of a cristal growing or a star , or an electric discharge ... Wich is what makes andy weir books rather intresting to me : You always feel like the main caracter is alive , there is a great deal of time spent on him figuring out what he has to eat to survive , and in general just his state as an open entropic system trying to stay an open entropic system , Somenthing similar happens in children of the earth and serina , in wich animals of comparable intelligence to humans take up the protagonist mantle ... And this is probably the crux of ecology : stuff never ends , you can't really solve the being alive problem ... As such you basically have to write different stories about aknowledging the problem and living with it , Rather than figuring out ways to solve a big mystery/issue

[@timtenthousand]

Project Hail Mary has a lot of fun biology stuff, especially microbiology

[@SoysauceCapone]

Just in time! I’m in the middle of the JP novel, thanks again UHC

[@Sunaki1000]

This reminds me of a writer who might be a good topic for you. Frank Schätzing, and his novel the Swarm.

[@matildaduff3543]

I've seen the term "social fiction" used to refer to sci-fi or fantasy that focuses on sociology, anthropology, or outright political themes.

[@praetorianrex5571]

Is it just me or biology has a stronger presence in western media than say in ACG (anime, comics, games) made in Japan and China?

[@godzilla0808]

I want to see your reaction and thoughts on MH wilds so bad.

[@macguyverbond7480]

You mistakenly attributed the film as later adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s work, but he wrote it in parity with the screenplay/production of the film. They (he and S. Kubrick) were collaborating on both works concurrently. Very different from the situation with Msrs Verhoeven and Heinlein.

[@takenname8053]

Books only? or other media too? I think Scavengers Reign was a cool Bio sci-fi show!

[@jacksonparker6983]

The title is pretty genius ngl

[@benjaminmyszka1479]

I just got back from buying a Crichton book, perfect timing

[@owenconroy1262]

The Gravity Book is excellent if you are looking for Sci-Fi (though it is almost all focused on microbiology) The book and movie might as well be two completely different movies.

[@Indochicyon]

babe, cancel all my plans... UHC uploaded a video...

[@skabAroll]

So uhh, doing any wilds content for the demo this week?

[@cjbroskin1327]

Would it be worth taking a deeper dive into older Lost World fiction to see how it evolved? I really need to give At the Earth's Core a proper read.

[@randallbesch2424]

1897: War of the Worlds had at its basis in biology and also robotics.

[@blackhammer5035]

No mention of Terminal Man? A shame, I’ve always felt it was one of his best, partly thanks to its brevity. As you point out, a lot of his books have a sort of dual plot structure, with one resolving well while the second drags out the end a bit. Terminal Man is more focused on.

[@JSBS-xe2cp]

The moment I saw the thumbnail I had to click it

[@killerkoffee4619]

one person who was writing about biological sci fi so to say for quite some time is grrm

[@IainG10]

I will forever refer to Star Wars as 'science-fantasy', which actually happens to be one of my favourite subgenres.

[@gogglesesm9122]

UHC would you ever be interested in writing a novel and if so what would be the central concept?

[@lamhuynh7201]

Tbf dune is technically also a biology scifi with melange and the original jihad shaped social, technology, politics and evolution. . And then there are the interweaving environmental juxtaposition

[@t-r-e-x452]

Your video on Primal Season 1 got taken down. Curse you KZbin Copyright police!

[@unnaturalhistorychannel]

Shit - time to remake then I guess 😅

[@the90thhunter92]

hey ​@@unnaturalhistorychannel, do you think MH is scifi or low fantasy or a mix of both?

[@dozierworld4350]

If we really have such overwhelming affection for things like JP and spider man, then I have to ask why we treat even their original as entertainment when their only real purpose is to make money. This goes for all movies since the don of film it's self I think. go ahead and prove me wrong? thank you

[@Thiccremoch162]

It’s still unfortunate that, despite him giving biology the limelight in his books, it’s hard to take some of Chrichton’s works seriously now given his statements on climate change the sheer ignorance in the face of evidence and scientific fact

[@TroyTheCatFish]

Neat 😁😄😃🤩