A World without Light
By: Jesse C Cohoon
Imagine a world
where light never was – or at least not the light that we know and enjoy on the
earth. Picture a world engulfed in a perpetual night where even the stars
didn’t even make much difference in the inky black darkness, as even if there
was a moon, there wouldn’t be enough ambient light to reflect to see its
surface. Think about what a planet would be like where life developed on a
planet much further from the sun like the barren icy dwarf Pluto. Or on a rock
that where life was created by outside forces like aliens or long forgotten
gods that set things in motion and have long since passed the way of the
dinosaur, and those forces’ existence was what created the world’s light? What
would such a reality look like?
Keep
in mind just because there’s no light, does not necessarily mean that there’s
no heat. The planet could be internally warmed, kept warm by magic, has a sun
that is being blocked by magic or an eclipse, is a sun that simply gives off no
light whatsoever. Or it could even be that it is a world that is at the brink
of extinction because of the lack of light or warmth.
Lack of Light & Vision
Such a world would probably a lot less colorful for
one. Without a light source, things end up being seen as in shades of gray.
Even for things that see in the infrared spectrum, it would be quite difficult
to see things that give off no heat signature. Movement at any sort of “normal” speed would
be problematic at best, at impossible at worst unless you already knew the
terrain by heart.
If you’re trying to aim for an enemy, you have to hope
that they’re A) a heat producer or B) making quite a bit of noise so that you
can attempt to target them accurately.
Lack of Light & Life
Without the
ambient light we see here on earth, most of the plants that we see here on
earth would be unable to grow. Over
time, some plants may be able to adjust to be able to grow in magical light,
firelight, or simply from the ambient heat. In worlds where science rules the
day, people may artificially crossbreed plants to create ones that need
literally no light at all.
Having said this, there are plants that don’t need
light. Many types of fungi, slimes, and molds would be abundant. Neither should
humanoids starve to death, despite not having the ability to farm large scale,
unless artificial light sources were brought into the equation to help grow
them. There still would be plenty of insects, blind small creatures, and fish
that don’t require light.
Life’s Adaptations to Darkness
In a place that is
permanently without light, life would make several adaptations. Quite a few
more creatures would be able to see in the dark. Others would be able to hear much
better, perhaps allowing them to navigate via echolocation, because they would
have no need of visual acuity. Natural selection would grant some increased
senses of smell. Still others would be able to sense the environment around
them via tremorsense, or around minute differences in air currents, similar to
how a fish feels its environment through its skin.
There
are other, less obvious ways that life could have adapted. It could have
changed what the diet of the creature is. Things that would be toxic to it
normally might actually nourish it because it developed glands to filter out
the poisons because there’s not the biodiversity we see today. Due to the lack
of trees and plants that would pump out oxygen in exchange for CO2, we might be
able to breathe what we would ordinarily consider noxious.
Without light creatures would likely need to be more
resilient, as without vision, they might tend to trip and fall, scraping
themselves up, as well as having more protections, as the predators would be
all that much more fierce. On the other side of the equation predators would
probably be more cunning, stronger, faster, and more able to snatch their
prey.
In
terms of plants, they may have evolved to live off of heat, or be more mobile
to seek out sources of light that they could grow with. If there’s starlight
available, they may have adapted by creating certain parts that help them
capture whatever light, similar to the way that cacti have adapted to conserve
water. Light would be a precious commodity that they would compete to gather.
Bioluminescence
According to the Nova episode “Creatures of light,”
one scientist puts it this way: “The open ocean is the biggest living space on
our planet – by far, and it’s a very unusual environment. There’s no trees or
bushes to hide behind, but animals have to play the same games of hide and seek
that they do on land, and that’s where bioluminescence comes into play.”
This naturally produced light can be used in a wide
variety of ways. First it could be used as a “motion sensor” to anything a
creature possessing it would “bump” into it, would create an alert to others of
its own kind nearby to stay away… or that of the predator’s own natural prey.
Then again it can be used to warn others to leave it alone, as it’s dangerous
to consume, as the coloring of the ladybug does. But not everything with such a
glow would actually be harmful, as is seen with the similar coloring of the
coral snake vs. the king snake. Another use of light could be used to misdirect
their predators, where they create a blinding flash of light to stun and
confuse their enemies. While the predator is recovering, it allows them time to
escape. Ironically enough, despite what would be “common sense” some creatures
may use bioluminescence to hide from their prey by matching the color and
intensity of whatever light there would be in the environment, thus effectively
camouflaging them. Alternative methods of light might attract prey, such as
what angler fish do. All of these tactics can backfire if the predator is
expecting the misdirection, and knows how to compensate for it.
Bioluminescence can also be used for communication. Some
creatures use flashing, oozing, or pulsating light to communicate with each
other. Some of this communication might be to inform their fellow creatures
where the predators are. Furthermore, it could be used to communicate where
food might be found. Also, creatures may use the light in order to stand out to
attract mates. Each species would have its own patterns, style, and brightness
to stand out from other, similar species for each of these different forms of
communication. There may be even a uniqueness to the pattern that would be able
to identify individuals.
Similar to bioluminescence is bio-florescence, in
which creatures and plants absorb light, changing its frequency, intensity, and
color. In our world this happens underwater only, as the water filters out
everything but blue light. In a world without light, however, the atmosphere
may be such that these same adaptations may be possible to be seen on land. How
this could be used is to act as a type of sunscreen, or dangerous side effects
from photosynthesis, or even personal identification so one the fish can tell
each other apart. Such specialized cells may even be able to form a rudimentary
armor in creatures that might ordinarily have no such defense. Yet in a world
without light, creatures would develop ways of detecting/ seeing it would be a
lot more prevalent than we see now.
Depending on the
technological or magical level of the society when the lights vanish may lead
to some interesting things. People may tattoo themselves with bioluminescent/
bio-fluorescent proteins to be able to get around without a power source. They
may create weapons out of bioluminescent materials so they have an advantage
over their foes. They may discover ways of curing diseases by inserting these
abilities into animals and doing testing on them to determine what cures
work. Conversely, they may insert them
into food so they can determine what’s safe to eat.
In a
post-apocalyptic society where there is nuclear winter, and the sun is being
blotted out by constant snowstorms, bioluminescence may be the key for survival
in that the light produced need not be a “cold” light, but a source of heating
and cooking as well.
With these all
ideas, consider taking away the light of your world… and seeing what
developments arise!
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