What would the world be like if it was run by a science-based society? I ask myself this when watching the post-truth anti-science politics that have been plaguing the United States. I can imagine a lot of things would be better for everyone if politics did not interfere with scientific advancement. I will portray a world in my dinosaur series in which conventional governments are overthrown and abolished. In their place, councils of scientists will run every country. However, just like political governments, this science-based society is corruptible. The reason for this is because a hunger for knowledge can be twisted into a thirst for power and knowledge IS power.
Normally, an island is usually a set size unless the sea level rises or a volcano expands it. However, I am planning something very unusual about the island in my dinosaur series. What if the island grows nonstop every year? How would such continuous growth affect the surrounding landmasses? This island will not be growing due to volcanic activity. Instead, it will be due to something far more extreme and unnatural. It will be a form of technology that goes horribly wrong. Another thing to consider is how will the island’s constant growth affect its inhabitants. This concept gives me a lot of ideas to work with as the series progresses.
I have wonderful news! In the near future, my sister will be getting married and I have been chosen to officiate the ceremony. To celebrate this glorious occasion, I will be having a very rare giveaway where five of my books will be FREE on Amazon Kindle. These books include Numen the Slayer, The War of the Gilded Beasts, Cosmic Genten, Karmathaur, and Herawulf Rising: Origins. This giveaway will last five days.
Possibly an even worse abomination than the Indominus Rex would be the Indoraptor from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The Indoraptor was the same size as the Utahraptor and even more dangerous. This creature was specifically bred to be a living weapon and it had a number of traits that made it well-suited for such a role. Like the Indominus Rex, the Indoraptor has supercharged killing instincts, which is useful when deployed on a battlefield.
There was a targeting system used to help the Indoraptor a basic understanding between friend or foe. This targeting system involved painting a target with a laser, which would allow the Indoraptor to identify the target. Once the target is painted, the Indoraptor’s handler would use a sound-based system that would serve as the attack command. When this command is given, the Indoraptor would be relentless in hunting down and attacking the designated target.
Due to having a lot more Velociraptor DNA than the Indominus Rex, the Indoraptor was both cunning and intelligent. This intellect was displayed when the Indoraptor pretended to be sedated in order to lure a mercenary into its cage. When the mercenary felt safe and tried to remove one of the Indoraptor’s teeth, the Indoraptor would strike. This demonstrated that the Indoraptor possessed a degree of sadism to go along with its intelligence.
The Indoraptor also possessed a very durable body. It was revealed to have a strong tolerance or immunity to sedatives. Its scaly skin is partially bulletproof. Shooting the Indoraptor would stun it, but the bullets would fall off its skin shortly afterward. Ultimately, it took the horns of a Triceratops skull to penetrate the Indoraptor’s hide.
In addition, it was revealed in the Indoraptor’s character profile that it also had night vision and echolocation. This would make it well-suited for stealth missions. As demonstrated when the Indoraptor bit a man’s arm off, its teeth are so sharp that it takes its victim’s blood vessels a moment to realize they were cut. This causes blood loss to be slower than normal, which is why we didn’t see much blood when the mercenary’s arm was severed. The Indoraptor’s claws are just as sharp, which was shown when it cut through the metal railing of a staircase.
One notable feature that sets the Indoraptor apart from the other dinosaurs from Isla Nublar is the fact that it is male. In both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, the dinosaurs were purposely female in order to control their populations. Later, the dinosaurs overcame this limitation by changing their gender. With the Indoraptor, it had higher levels of testosterone, which would have made it more aggressive like a bull elephant during the mating season. This increased aggression would have made the Indoraptor an even more brutal killing machine.
The really scary thing about the Indoraptor is the fact that it was just a prototype. Due to this, it needed to be refined in a number of areas. While the targeting system gave the Indoraptor some degree of following orders and telling friend from foe, it did not have the same level of discipline and obedience that Owen Grady’s Velociraptors had. Also, because of its status as a new lifeform, the Indoraptor had no idea how to behave. As Dr. Henry Wu said, the Indoraptor needed a parental figure to teach it how to behave. Once it learned these behavioral patterns, the Indoraptor would become more compliant with human commands. If the Indoraptor was completely refined to its full potential as a living weapon, I can only imagine what it would be capable of.
Overall, I felt the Indoraptor was a fictional dinosaur with a lot of potential, but I think it did not live up to that potential in the movie. I think the Indoraptor could have been a lot scarier than it was originally portrayed. Despite its intellect, the Indoraptor mostly behaved like a rabid attack dog instead of a calculating killer like Jack the Ripper. Even though it was stated that it had night vision and echolocation, those abilities were not featured in the film. Still, the Indoraptor had a strong presence on the screen when we first saw it. I can only imagine how much damage could have been done if there was a pack of Indoraptors instead of just the one.
One of my favorite fictional dinosaurs would be the Indominus Rex from Jurassic World. I think the Indominus Rex best symbolizes the unpredictability that comes from creating a new lifeforms from scratch. When you create an organism that has never existed before, you have no way of knowing what kind of behavioral patterns it would have or what it is capable of. I liked that it had fully functional arms, which is a stark contrast from Tyrannosaurus Rex’s small arms. Another trait of the Indominus Rex that I liked was the fact that it had the intellect of a Velociraptor, which gave it sophisticated problem solving skills. Because it had exaggerated predatory features, the Indominus Rex had overly supercharged killing instincts. This is best demonstrated when it slaughtered an entire herd of Apatosaurus and bit the head off an Ankylosaurus for sport by itself. Like the Abelisaurs that were used in its creation, the Indominus Rex was a cannibal, which was highlighted when it ate its own sibling. The Indominus Rex also possessed other abilities that set it apart from more traditional carnivorous dinosaurs such as infrared vision, camouflage, and avoiding thermal detection. Overall, the Indominus Rex was an unholy abomination that would have been the scourge of the prehistoric world if it existed in real life.
As the next Jurassic Park film, Jurassic World: Dominion, draws closer, I constantly think about what to expect. At the end of Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs were released into the wild and others were auctioned off to parties around the world that want to create their own dinosaurs. The dinosaurs that escaped are one thing, but I think the dinosaurs that were auctioned off are going to be an even bigger threat to human civilization. The reason for this is due to how the parties that purchased them are going to abuse dinosaur cloning. As Ian Malcolm famously said to John Hammond, “Genetic power is the single greatest force the world has ever seen and you wield it like a kid who just found his dad’s gun.” Malcolm elaborates further by comparing genetic power to nuclear power. Once the world sees what it is capable of, many people will want in on it. There would be money to be made; LOTS of it! InGen’s failures with both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World are just two example of how genetic power is not properly handled. Mankind can certainly create something from genetic power, but they have the arrogance in believing they can control what they created. Imagine what would happen if dinosaur cloning and genetic power became widespread on a global scale. You would have disasters like Jurassic Park happening all over the world due to humanity’s futile attempts to control Mother Nature. Overall, I expect to see the makings of a dinosaur apocalypse in Jurassic World: Dominion.
In Jurassic Park, Dennis Nedry was bribed by Biosyn to steal dinosaur embryos from the park. The Barbasol can Nedry used had enough room to contain 15 embryos and keep them alive for 36 hours. In order to access the embryos, Nedry implanted a computer virus that shut down all security systems in Jurassic Park. This resulted in the dinosaurs escaping from their enclosures and ultimately led to the park’s doom. In the end, Nedry failed to escape with the embryos and was famously eaten alive by a Dilophosaurus. The embryos themselves were buried underneath mud from the rain storm. However, I wonder what would happen if Nedry managed to escape and deliver the embryos to Biosyn. Would Biosyn use the embryos to create their own dinosaur theme park? Would Biosyn use dinosaurs as living weapons like Eli Mills tried to with the Indoraptor in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom? Would Biosyn use the dinosaurs for medical research? Or would they use the dinosaurs for a more sinister purpose? In the forthcoming film, Jurassic World: Dominion, it is rumored that Biosyn will return and will be one of the parties that get their hands on Dinosaur DNA. Due to this, we may see what Biosyn had planned for the embryos in the next film.
It’s finally here! The trailer for the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune! I must say that I like the darker feel it has compared to the 1984 film and 2000 miniseries. After seeing this trailer, I spent five whole minutes reciting my favorite quotes from the book such as “He who controls the spice controls the universe” or “Muad’Dib”. I look forward to seeing this film assuming the theaters will be open by then.
I found a new interesting book to read called Primitive War. It takes place in the Vietnam War and a bunch of soldiers come in contact with dinosaurs in the war torn jungle. The book is like a combination between Apocalypse Now, Predator, and Jurassic Park all rolled into one. The characters are believable with their own set of relatable problems while the dinosaurs are more scientifically accurate with feathers. The dinosaur killings are definitely more brutal than Jurassic Park, but the dinosaurs have been described as animals instead of monsters. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dinosaurs and war stories.
My dinosaur book will take place in a hostile environment. Due to the testing site’s unique atmosphere and climate, human beings cannot survive in it without a specially designed life support suit. Without this suit, the human characters would die within a matter of hours. These suits will play a prominent role in the story as the characters struggle to escape. These suits will even have features that allow the wearer to eat, drink, and even go to the bathroom while in the suit.With these factors in mind, the characters will be spending most of the story in these suits. I have taken inspiration from life support suits from scifi films such as Underwater, Prometheus, and The Martian.
