What do aliens dream about?

I like to think they dream about their internal worlds -- their thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory processes -- as well as their external worlds -- their ecosystem, the weather, their relationships if they have them. Of course, this assumes that aliens would be part of an ecosystem to observe and dream about. And that they have thoughts. And that they dream. And that they exist. They probably do exist, and they are probably part of ecosystems, but the rest is wild speculation. Maybe they dream of other worlds. I certainly do.

I have been a mild fan of speculative evolution since before I knew what it was called. As a kid, I spent hours perfecting the fitness of my Spore creations. In sixth grade I was assigned a science project where I had to create an alien that could survive on Jupiter, and I went wild with my gas-swimming, hydrogen-breathing mostrosity. More recently, I've infused my upcoming sci-fi novel with rapidly-mutating posthumans that function like colonial organisms. I've never been content to limit my fictional worlds to modern terrestrial life. Works like All Tomorrows and The Teeming Universe captivate me with their contemplations on what it means to be human, what it means to be something other than human, and what it means to be alive.

Speculative evolution encompasses many subgenres. Some examples include alternate and future Earths, seed worlds, and biologically-grounded versions of pop culture critters. While captivating, none of these excite me more than the prospect of crafting a fictional planet and building life from scratch. The first microbes of abiogenesis transforming over fathomless eons into chemical powerhouses, mighty megafauna, and self-aware sophonts is one of the most fascinating phenomena of our universe. As far as we know this has only happened once, but that hasn't stopped a thriving community of speculative evolution enthusiasts from imagining the possibilities of alien worlds. This subgenre is known as xenobiology. Xeno (alien) + bio (life) + logy (study of) = the study of alien life.

This website is a compilation of basic biology lessons geared toward application in speculative evolution projects. In some lessons, I will include snippets of my own personal project as examples. I am a writer and theatre degree haver, not a scientist, so I encourage you to branch out in search of other sources, but this will hopefully be a helpful starting point for beginner xenobiology enjoyers who would like a little help starting their own evolutionary tree.

Nothing presented on this website should be considered rules that your world must follow. This website will explore the rules of life on our planet and how things might differ when circumstances are changed, but your project doesn't have to adhere to every suggestion. Here I hope to present humanity's current understanding of the rules of life so that you can follow or break them as desired.