Cosmolgy and evolution in flatland - 2-dimensional creatures?
The novella "Flatland - a Romance of Many Dimensions" is an interesting and transcendent classical publication, where all men and women exist in a kingdom within a universe consisting of only 2-dimensions. It is an interesting though-experiment to consider a world that is a simple flat plane, ike a map, and beings can only see the edges of eachother.
More info about it can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
But how would a 2-dimensionsl universe work? How would it come about? And how would life there come about, and exist within a 2-dimensional biome?
A little while ago, I tried to figure it out, with the help of my longtime-friend Mette Aumala.
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The universal plane began as an infinitely dense and tightly coiled spiral, containing all the chemical elements that would go on to make the universe.
During the “big smear” it uncoiled, fragmented and expanded ever outward, sideways and along, creating a 2-dimensional plane onto which various simple 2-dimensional chemicals elements drifted. This universe looks to us like a map on a piece of paper, there is no up or down, just along and across, forever.
Sources of gravity attracted 2 dimensional matter to form wide, colourful disks, made of 2 main kinds of matter. Brown was denser and harder to move across, blue was smoother, and less dense, allowing quicker movement. It was within the blue of the largest planetary dis that organic 2-dimensional, complex chemicals coalesced into the first proto-animal.
Chemicals that were angular, bracket-shaped or straight line-segments, of small size, would link up to eventually form a ragged outline, which formed the outer skin of the creatures' body. It sought other chemicals to imbibe into its outline to make itself larger and more ragged, before fissioning into two that were alike. The innards of these animals were a purple morass of more complicated organic chemicals, shaped like spirals, squiggles or centipedes, they could be broken up and recombined to build new organs and tissues.
One large disc in the flat firmament, made of very reactive matter started to emit light, that fell on these primitive animalcules. Sending a disk-shaped beam outward, when it hit a solid mass or an animal, that would leave an infinitely long beam-shaped shadow in which other creatures could take refuge. Long complex segments of chemicals eventually learned to affect their growth by exposure to light, these new plants were shaped like slender snowflakes, or centipedes. Unlike on our earth, these plants must move or drift constantly to avoid nutrition-less shadows.
A flatland plant.
Meanwhile, the animals got better at detecting and finding chemicals, plants and each other, light-sensitive small chevrons evolved attached to the outermost edge of the creature, to sense the edges of things that may be edible. The outline's “skin” became touch sensitive when colliding with other objects. With better food acquisition came better digestion, and the internal chemicals could affect the growth of the creature's outline. Soon came not only eyes, but limbs, tails, and single orifices through which food could be consumed into a stomach, and later expelled, robbed of chemicals. A terminal anus did not exist, as bisection means either death, breakup of the outline, or the fission that causes these creatures to breed. Respiration was done via 2 rearward folded sacs connected to the outside.
In this world, a higher surface area comes from being a predator, or aging, but also hinders 2-dimensional movement by inducing drag. And thus, herbivores are all fast, tadpole/sperm shaped midgets, furiously migrating in order to nibble the drifting plants. Most predators are juggernauts, with large wide eyes on their forward end, around a funnel shaped mouth-anus, leading into the stomach. This “head” is followed by a pair of rowing fins (because flapping does not occur in a place with no up or down). Next come the rearward lungs, tucked away to prevent imbibing objects that are too large, but constantly inhaling and exhaling important chemicals. Finally the body tapers into a tadpole-like tail, which along with the rowing fins, propels the animal forward. Some predators have big flanges either side of the mouth, to direct prey inward, and some can even move these to push prey down their gullet. The move from blue-surface to brown, only necessitated bigger fins with points that could gain traction, and a smaller tail, the equivalent of a limbed animal like a lion. Some predators adapted to lurk in the long shadows, in lee of a large plant, to seize swarms of tiny herbivores.
Given further evolution, more complex, folded shapes and bigger sizes may evolve, but because the surface area for absorbing new chemicals may not be within an outline (only on the outer edge), this constraint keeps creatures from becoming too large. Indeed, fractal shapes and folds may be more adaptational than bigger sizes and higher volumes. Maybe the animal of the future is a folded octopus shaped beast with multiple mouths and limbs, harvesting nutrients and prey as it moves like a ship, casting a giant shadow behind it.
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More thought experiments may follow on this theme, imagining large more-evolved multi-mouthed animals, or terrestrial dwellers of "brown terrain.
Anyhow, this was an interesting exercise, I hope you enjoyed the result.
© Timothy Donald Morris 2023
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