Could Cephalopods Be the Dominant Species in Parallel Worlds?

[Sayestu]

I have a story idea involving MWI and a world where the evolutionary branches that would produce octopuses and mammals split 500+ million years ago. A group of conspiracy theorists think cephalopods became the dominant species in some worlds and want to "visit," and it might be possible. I want them to target a theoretical physicist unwittingly on the track to finding out. What theory might she have, experiment might she design, etc.? I'm really stumped.

 

[DaveC426913]

I am not sure if you consider reading similar stories to be research but Adrian Tchaichovsky's Children of Ruin did an incredible portrayal of Cephalopods In Space. It's the sequel to Children of Time so you might want to start with that one.

 

[DaveC426913]

Is the theory/hypothesis/experiment intended as a story hook to drive her/them into space, hot on the trail?

It seems there's two hurdles to overcome in the story: one is 'OMG, there's life out there on other planets' and two is 'OMG, they're descendants of Earth Cephalopods' in that order.

What combination of those two do you need to tackle?

 

[Sayestu]

Is the theory/hypothesis/experiment intended as a story hook to drive her/them into space, hot on the trail?

It seems there's two hurdles to overcome in the story: one is 'OMG, there's life out there on other planets' and two is 'OMG, they're descendants of Earth Cephalopods' in that order.

What combination of those two do you need to tackle?

Other planets aren't involved. It's an alternate Earth, a different world/timeline or set of them, as in the MWI, that diverged from ours 500-700 (there might be different estimates) million years ago. I want to be able to say "Dr. Sam is working on x while characters A and C are exploring the Quinault Canyon [underwater]." I thought she might work in quantum computing, since she went to U of Washington in Seattle (where they have a QC lab), but she doesn't have to. She'd be working with a philosopher of mind and a marine biologist, but their fields don't have to be involved.

 

[Bystander]

https://www.looper.com/1285057/resident-alien-season-3-everything-need-know/

 

[Sayestu]

https://www.looper.com/1285057/resident-alien-season-3-everything-need-know/

It doesn't seem to mention anything related to my idea except aliens, which my cephs aren't exactly anyway.

 

[DaveC426913]

Other planets aren't involved. It's an alternate Earth, a different world/timeline or set of them, as in the MWI,

Is the theory/hypothesis/experiment intended as a story hook to drive her/them into an alternate world, hot on the trail?

It seems there's two hurdles to overcome in the story: one is 'OMG, there's alternate dimensions' and two is 'OMG, in this alternate world they're descendants of Earth Cephalopods' - in that order.

What combination of those two do you need to tackle?

I want to be able to say "Dr. Sam is working on x while characters A and C are exploring the Quinault Canyon [underwater]." I thought she might work in quantum computing, since she went to U of Washington in Seattle (where they have a QC lab), but she doesn't have to.

This makes it sound like you need to tackle both.

I think you might want to address them both separately, in two side-by-side storylines, until they merge when the two scientists finally discover each other.
For one, I am not sure how you're going to get over the hurdle that Cephalopods, having no bones, should be effectively non-existent in the fossil record. So how can a Cephalopodolist even be studing paleocephalopodology at all? Is there an abyssal equivalent of preservation in amber? What if a Ceph was preserved, in situ in a pyroclastic flow?

As to getting the two of them together, it's a question of who rings up whom.

1. Physicist rings up Cephologist: the physicist fires up his Alternate-World-o-matic and summons a sentient Ceph. The Ceph of course, is utterly inscrutable, and she needs to bring in an expert in Ceph behavior.
2. Cephologist rings up Physicist: Cephologist, studying sample in pyroclasticized rock, keeps getting back images from the X-ray-o-matic lab that are useless. They are blown out with artifacts. A bit of sleuthing with the X-ray-o-matic lab suggests it is an artifact of neutrino exposure. Calls in Physicist who discovers there are double or treble the number of neutrinos emitted from this specimen as there should be. Almost as if there's overlapping duplicate neutrino sources...

Which one is your main character? Which plot line (physics or paleocephology) do you want front and centre, and which plotline do you want as side plot, concurrent, to bring our knowledge up-to-speed for when they get together?

 

[Hornbein]

This might help.

 

[DaveC426913]

Again, along the lines of researching similar stories: In Robert J. Sawyer's trilogy Hominids they used the neutrino detector buried under the Canadian Shield near Sudbury. When they turned it on, they accidentally connected with an identical neutrino detector in an alternate universe and summoned a Neanderthal - whose species had risen to intelligence instead of sapiens.

 

[Sayestu]

Is the theory/hypothesis/experiment intended as a story hook to drive her/them into an alternate world, hot on the trail?

It seems there's two hurdles to overcome in the story: one is 'OMG, there's alternate dimensions' and two is 'OMG, in this alternate world they're descendants of Earth Cephalopods' - in that order.

What combination of those two do you need to tackle?

This makes it sound like you need to tackle both.

I think you might want to address them both separately, in two side-by-side storylines, until they merge when the two scientists finally discover each other.

What I'm not sure about is how this is possible. Why would a scientist, exploring the Canyon in this world, discover anything from an alternate world?

What if - I don't know - the Cephologist is exploring paleocephalopodology - as a way of getting us readers up to speed on cephalopods - while on the primary plotline, the physicist fires up his Alternate-World-o-matic and summons a sentient Ceph. The Ceph of course, is utterly inscrutable, and she needs to bring in an expert in Ceph behavior.I am not sure how you're going to get over the hurdle that Cephalopods, having no bones, should be effectively non-existent in the fossil record. Is there an abyssal equivalent of preservation in amber? What if a Ceph was preserved, in situ in a pyroclastic flow?

So now that she has a sample to study, is there some way that a Cephologist might need the services of a physicist to ... er ... image ... Cephalopod remains, and that's what bring them together?

Cephologist keeps getting back images from the X-ray-o-matic lab that are useless. They are blown out with artifacts. A bit of sleuthing with the X-ray-o-matic lab suggests it is an artifact of neutrino exposure. Physicist steps in and discovers there are double or treble the number of neutrinos emitted from this specimen as there should be. Almost as if there's overlapping duplicate neutrino sources...

I do plan on multiple threads. The MC had a psychologically and physically traumatic event after years down the "Cephs from another timeline" conspiracy rabbit hole that he now doesn't remember, and, without too much irrelevant detail, dreamed of a marriage with Biologist when really he was married to Physicist. In the dream world, which he still visits each night, his subconscious memories of the rabbit hole manifest as a mysterious mystery of unsolved mystery.
IRL, Biologist, Physicist, and MC (philosopher of mind) investigate Weird Stuff in the Quinault Canyon. The conspiract bros catch wind and think they might get too close to "the truth" and go after Physicist, who typically works back in her lab.
I don't want to include a physical "alien" if possible because, in the end, I want "normal" explanations to be plausible—conspiracy weirdos, maybe some cool new physics oddity, but not necessarily "aliens" or other worlds proven.
I was thinking some sort of deep-sea anomaly that would give a hint of MWI. The anomaly isn't super relevant to the plot. But I'm open to more suggestions. I love what you came up with; it just wasn't the direction I intended.

This might help.

This seems only to mention MW and then address inflation. Thanks, though.

 

[Sayestu]

Again, along the lines of researching similar stories: In Robert J. Sawyer's trilogy Hominids they used the neutrino detector buried under the Canadian Shield near Sudbury. When they turned it on, they accidentally connected with an identical neutrino detector in an alternate universe and summoned a Neanderthal - whose species had risen to intelligence instead of sapiens.

Ooh, yeah! Something like that might work! But not that exactly, of course.

 

[Sayestu]

We may bump every 24 hours, right?