Speculative Evolution

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Synonyms: spec, spec evo, specevo
See also: original species, alternate history
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Speculative evolution, or specevo, is a subgenre of speculative fiction focused on the evolution of life.

Speculative evolution has a significant online community which creates the majority of speculative evolution content (frequently shortened to spec), members of which may be called speccers or speculative evolutionists. It has considerable overlap with the paleontological community, particularly paleoartists, as well as with fandoms such as the furry fandom and the SCP Foundation.

Terminology

  • Alternate Evolution or Alt Evo: A work of speculative evolution which follows an alternate path of evolution from organisms in Earth's past, usually with a distinct point of divergence. For example, an alternate timeline where a non-avian dinosaur species survived the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. Compare alternate history, but on more extreme timescales.
  • Alternate Universe or Alt Uni: A work of speculative evolution which takes place in a different universe from the natural world, which can range from the introduction of a magic system to a complete overhaul of the laws of physics.
  • Community Project: A speculative evolution project created in collaboration between a community, often with an application or submission process. Overlaps greatly with evolution games, but not every community project is a game.
  • Evolution Game or Evo Game: A work of speculative evolution which is also a game in which the player(s) create and evolve their own species, typically featuring some amount of gamification and a distinctive "present day" that moves ahead as the species evolve. This is usually a forum-, discord-, or wiki-based game, but video games such as Spore may also qualify by some definitions.
  • Future Evolution: A work of speculative evolution which explores what modern-day species might evolve into in the future.
  • Hard Spec: A work of speculative evolution which attempts to adhere strictly to scientific accuracy or principals. Compare hard sci-fi.
  • No K-Pg: A work of speculative evolution which specifically explores what would have happened if the mass extinction event which wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs never occurred.
  • Posthuman: A speculative species, or a member of one such species, which evolved from humanity.
  • Seed World: A speculative evolution project taking place on a planet that was seeded with existing life-forms, usually a small selection of plants and animals from Earth.
  • Soft Spec: A work of speculative evolution which is looser with scientific principals intentionally or otherwise, or that sacrifices scientific plausibility as an artistic choice or for the sake of fun. Compare soft sci-fi.
  • Sophont: Any species which has intelligence or capacity for technological sophistication at or exceeding the level of a human, often used as the next step up from "sapient". The term originated in Orion's Arm, but may be used slightly differently in other works of speculative evolution.
  • Spec: Any work of speculative evolution, or a specific instance of speculative evolution being used in worldbuilding regardless of genre, including within a spec work.
  • Speccer: Someone who creates speculative evolution content or participates in the speculative evolution community.
  • Spectember: An annual tradition among speccers to create a new speculative creation every day for the entire month of September. Spinoff of Inktober.
  • Xenobiology or Xeno: A work of speculative evolution focusing on alien life.

Defining "Speculative Evolution"

There is some disagreement between speccers on what actually qualifies as speculative evolution, ranging from including all forms of worldbuilding or creature design that attempt to use scientific principals to being restricted only to works which adhere to the most up-to-date modern science, some even going so far as to suggest that if an active creator doesn't update their work with new scientific discoveries, it could even stop qualifying as spec. Many speccers fall somewhere in the middle, generally agreeing that the use of evolution or its principals is a defining feature of of the subgenre, but considering the former to be too inclusive as it could count media such as Pokemon that are otherwise seen as clearly not being an example of spec, while considering the standards of the latter to be impossible to adhere to, not the least because the scientific community rarely agrees on anything except that "scientific truth" doesn't exist.

Speculative Evolution vs Speculative Biology

Some speccers consider speculative biology to be a synonym of speculative evolution, however others do not. To the latter, speculative biology may be regarded as an umbrella group which includes speculative evolution as well as any scientific explanation for fictional biology, including that which would not generally be considered spec evo such as the biology of vulcans.

Fandom

The speculative evolution community is mostly spread between a myriad of social media circles and small discord servers. Some larger spec-oriented discord servers include Tira: A Speculative World (6000+ members), Spec Evo Forum Discord (800+ members), Specposium (500+ members), and Sagan 4 Alpha (300+). There is also a dedicated Speculative Evolution Forum, which hosts over 1000 unique speculative evolution projects.

Much like the furry fandom, the speculative evolution community creates and shares original works with one another with no ties to any central piece or group of popular media, forming a self-sustaining art and writing community. For this reason, some speccers consider it to be a fandom for the same reasons that furries are called such, but there is some disagreement. Many speccers instead consider themselves to be a niche hobby community, comparing it to photography or dumpster-diving. Others point out that most hobbyists don't invest significant amounts of time on writing and sharing indie fiction with one another, which could on its own make them a distinct subculture. There are some who would consider speculative evolution to be a fandom activity, but don't see it as distinct from the broader science fiction fandom. Some speccers argue that assigning the term "fandom" to works based on real-world science is inappropriate. Nonetheless, most members of the community do identify as fans of speculative evolution specifically.

Many members of the speculative evolution community started as fans of one well-known work in the genre, such as The Future Is Wild, All Tomorrows, or Serina. When a work goes viral, it often brings with it a wave of new speccers who are heavily influenced by it, such as a rise in posthuman content following All Tomorrows' virality or the popularity of seed worlds inspired by Serina.

Overlap with Other Fandoms and Communities

Alternate History

To some extent, alternate evolution--a sub-genre of speculative evolution--could be likened to alternate history to an extreme, and some spec evo works, especially those featuring lost continents, also contain alternate history. Many fans of speculative evolution are also fans of alternate history.

Paleontology and Paleoart

There's significant overlap between speculative evolution and paleontology, particularly paleoart. Predictions about future fossil discoveries, considered to be some of the earliest examples of speculative evolution, have been a part of paleontology since its beginnings. The book All Yesterdays and its collaborative follow-up, All Your Yesterdays, which were co-authored by spec evo community member C. M. Kosemen, directly applied speculative principals to fossil animals. The latter also contained a speculative anomalocarid dubbed "Bearded Ceticaris", which bore a striking resemblance to a real fossil anomalocarid, Tamisiocaris, which would be discovered the following year, adding further legitimacy to this approach to paleoart. In this way, speculative evolution is directly linked to the rise of third-wave paleoart.

Spore

Spore is a game in which the player takes control of the evolution of a species from the first cell to galactic civilization, and features a robust creature editor. In addition to appealing to speccers in general and creating an entire generation of them, including the founders of the original Spec Evo Forum, the Spore community also contains a sub-community dedicated to creating serious spec using the game as their medium. A number of spec projects, such as Sagan 4 and Ecomoon, are simultaneously considered to be Spore fanworks--more specifically, examples of Spore lore--as they are based on the game at their roots.

Furry Fandom

As speculative evolution directly concerns the creation of species, some speccers may create original species intended for the furry community, or that become adopted by it. An especially famous example is the Avali. Some speccers who also identify as furries may have a speculative creature as their fursona. There's some debate as to whether all speculative creatures fall under the original species umbrella, from both the speculative evolution and furry perspectives, and speccers who are unfamiliar with furry fandom terminology may be puzzled when asked if their species are "open" or "closed".

Example Works

Future Evolution

Alternate Evolution

Seed Worlds

Xenobiology

Alternate Universe

Specposium

The speculative evolution community has never had any in-person conventions, but this role is filled by Specposium, an annual virtual conference where various members of the community host panels focusing on topics of interest. This includes project showcases and reviews, community history and legacy, education, scientific resources, and examination of creatures from popular media under an evolutionary lens.

Astrovitae

Astrovitae is an online zine dedicated to speculative evolution.

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