Day 4: Preproduction (Metallicity)

This is where we peel away from realism into art. I got carried away by the idea of using the metallicity concept to represent an abstract poetical gestalt for each star and planet combination and how it influences biogenesis.

Instead of thinking in scientific terms about the metallicity distribution function (α/Fe) or (Fe/H) (despite the fascinating history) I want to use fictional attributes derived from metallicity to represent all sorts of qualities that can be punched into grammars from the star system data.

The more metals in a star and thus its planetary system and proplyd, the more likely the system may have gas giant planets.

Getting really wild here, I had two concepts for how this part of the generator could run.

This will enable picking out specific effects like procedural colour schemes, subsets of stories and story cycle resolutions, name generators, favoured verb phrases and adjectives, climatic or dramatic texture from certain noun choices, etc.

But before getting into any of that detail, let’s look at the components that can turn the sawtooth pattern of elements graded by the parent star’s metallicity into a little alchemical network that can form various weird dissipative structures and ecologies across this fictional galaxy.

Solvent

Water
Ammonia
Methane
Silicon Dioxide
Hydrogen fluoride
Hydrogen sulfide

Biochemistry

Reactants

Carbon
Silicon
Boron
Arsenic
Sulfur

Reagents

Liposome
Micelle
Bilayer