Diversity Maximized World Map | Atlas Altera

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Looking Back from 1945 - Factions of WW2 in Altera​

For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.​

And another map to build the lore further for Altera's WW2 era...

This map shows how the Second World War war played out from the perspective of the Society of Nations (SoN), who have more teeth than the analagous League of Nations did in OTL. In ATL, the SoN's measures for intervention, though not as mature as they will be by the end of the century, are enough to be activated so that a collective security mission is triggered when Germany invades Polony. Member states are compelled to either commit to the war effort with aid or directly form part of the coalition forces in the fight.

Neutrality is not an option for members of the SoN for collective security missions. States who were originally sympathetic to the Axis, but who wished to bide their time, ejected themselves out of the SoN and declared neutrality.

You can see that from the beginning of the war, there were a lot more problematic factions or alliances that the SoN could not contain, but as Germany alienated its former (pragmatic) allies in the Comintern Bloc, and as the Allies successfully curried a truce between the Comintern Bloc and Norway and White russia, the tide quickly reverses for the Axis.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Ketchup World - The Way Ketchup Spread Across Altera​

For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.​

Zveiner and I did this infographic to pay homage to ... ketchup—and its interesting history. It is done in the style of a Visual Capitalist infographic.

Some cool TILs:

• Did you know thhe word ketchup or catsup likely comes from Hokkien, koe-chiap, for "pickled fish brine"?
• Did you know that before the tomato form became synonymous with the term itself, there was also mushroom ketchup or even white (horseradish) ketchup (as shown by Max Miller from Tasting History)?
• Did you know that the related sauces of A1 and HP are defined by using raisins and tamarind, respectively?

This mapping exercise is partly inspired by Weird (Fruit) Explorer, who sometimes experiments with making ketchup from obscure fruits he encounters. To a lesser degree, it's also informed by the tidbits from people like Max Miller and Townsends. And a recent TED-Ed video on the history of ketchup inspired me to revisit the Wikimedia-style map on ketchup I made awhile ago and turn it into this much more satisfying infographic.

If you recall, some of the other more serious ethnobotany maps we developed include:

• This map on domesticated staple crops
• And this map on staple steeps.

 

[ML8991]

Ketchup World - The Way Ketchup Spread Across Altera​

View attachment 900816

For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.​

Zveiner and I did this infographic to pay homage to ... ketchup—and its interesting history. It is done in the style of a Visual Capitalist infographic.

Some cool TILs:

• Did you know thhe word ketchup or catsup likely comes from Hokkien, koe-chiap, for "pickled fish brine"?
• Did you know that before the tomato form became synonymous with the term itself, there was also mushroom ketchup or even white (horseradish) ketchup (as shown by Max Miller from Tasting History)?
• Did you know that the related sauces of A1 and HP are defined by using raisins and tamarind, respectively?

This mapping exercise is partly inspired by Weird (Fruit) Explorer, who sometimes experiments with making ketchup from obscure fruits he encounters. To a lesser degree, it's also informed by the tidbits from people like Max Miller and Townsends. And a recent TED-Ed video on the history of ketchup inspired me to revisit the Wikimedia-style map on ketchup I made awhile ago and turn it into this much more satisfying infographic.

If you recall, some of the other more serious ethnobotany maps we developed include:

• This map on domesticated staple crops
• And this map on staple steeps.

Nice, this is another great exploration of the world of Altera, and decidedly unexpected, so am looking forward to what other ideas you guys have to explore for this.

Definitely some surprises, such as peaches and cherries. Just one question though, is the Western Europe Prussian Blue/Blue-Grey supposed to be as our timeline, or what fruit ketchup is that supposed to be?

Keep up the fascinating work

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Nice, this is another great exploration of the world of Altera, and decidedly unexpected, so am looking forward to what other ideas you guys have to explore for this.

Definitely some surprises, such as peaches and cherries. Just one question though, is the Western Europe Prussian Blue/Blue-Grey supposed to be as our timeline, or what fruit ketchup is that supposed to be?

Keep up the fascinating work

Thanks for the interest! So the peach and cherry bits are inspired by my observations of how there are a lot of Chinese American sauces that are really just sugar + vinegar with a hint of fruit (kind of like orange and lemon sauce in Cantonese cuisine) and the fruit is often stone fruit. These are sauces used with spring rolls, sometimes known as duck sauce, and these also resemble the more "authentic" Pekin duck-style plum sauce. So ya, plum sauce, and just sugar + vinegar sauce, led me to think that I could explore more sauces made with adjacent fruits.

The Western European version of ketchup is a raisin-based one, which in OTL, is closest to what we know as A1 sauce, I believe. The one with tamarind is what is closest to what we in OTL know as A1 sauce.

 

[Lexyflop]

this whole map and general project is absolutely astounding oh my god

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

this whole map and general project is absolutely astounding oh my god

hehe thanks for saying so.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

We Come in Peace - Altera in the Space Age

For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.​

Zveiner and I developed this map to show human presence in outer space for Atlas Altera. You can see who is currently up there, the share by nationality of satellites orbiting the planet. Note also that the SoN operates two rapid cargo launch stations for states without the capability to launch satellites one in the middle of the Atlantic, Dexai, and one in the Emporic, Dhawan).

The infographic is also adorned with 64 languages in dozens of scripts. This is another one of our infographic-style maps that leans more into our fun and creative side, but it still embodies the spirit of the project as a syntopian fiction project— to reimagine how diversity and co-existence can take shape. Check out this spreadsheet for the translations for the languages depicted on these graphics.

Finally, whether you’re a fellow traveller or distant admirer of Atlas Altera, we would love to get some feedback on our project. Help us fill out this short survey and you can have a chance to win a Fellow Traveller or Syntopian Poputchik t-shirt from the exclusive world of Atlas Altera merch. It will only take a couple of minutes!

 

[Neoteros]

We Come in Peace - Altera in the Space Age
View attachment 907137
View attachment 907138
For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.​

Zveiner and I developed this map to show human presence in outer space for Atlas Altera. You can see who is currently up there, the share by nationality of satellites orbiting the planet. Note also that the SoN operates two rapid cargo launch stations for states without the capability to launch satellites one in the middle of the Atlantic, Dexai, and one in the Emporic, Dhawan).

The infographic is also adorned with 64 languages in dozens of scripts. This is another one of our infographic-style maps that leans more into our fun and creative side, but it still embodies the spirit of the project as a syntopian fiction project— to reimagine how diversity and co-existence can take shape. Check out this spreadsheet for the translations for the languages depicted on these graphics.

Finally, whether you’re a fellow traveller or distant admirer of Atlas Altera, we would love to get some feedback on our project. Help us fill out this short survey and you can have a chance to win a Fellow Traveller or Syntopian Poputchik t-shirt from the exclusive world of Atlas Altera merch. It will only take a couple of minutes!

Now this is amazing - Gene Roddenberry would approve, since it's got a more Star Trek vibe than most modern Star Trek series; if there's something I've noticed about modern science fiction, the utopian spirit that permeated those series until the 1990s (and that is still being pushed by Kim Stanley Robinson) is gone. Even Stargate SG-1, that was made with US Army assistance, had a more optimistic outlook than most modern science fiction works.

By the way, I noticed that in the map about Altera's religions, you hinted at methods of harvesting so adept at not killing small animals, they're used by the Jains in Marwar; I've tried to look for them on the internet, but I wasn't able to find anything at all. What did you base them on?

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Now this is amazing - Gene Roddenberry would approve, since it's got a more Star Trek vibe than most modern Star Trek series; if there's something I've noticed about modern science fiction, the utopian spirit that permeated those series until the 1990s (and that is still being pushed by Kim Stanley Robinson) is gone. Even Stargate SG-1, that was made with US Army assistance, had a more optimistic outlook than most modern science fiction works.

By the way, I noticed that in the map about Altera's religions, you hinted at methods of harvesting so adept at not killing small animals, they're used by the Jains in Marwar; I've tried to look for them on the internet, but I wasn't able to find anything at all. What did you base them on?

Thanks for this! It is sad that the current zeitgeist is a lot more pessimistic and the UN seems to be spiraling into a cynical performance that barely anyone even tunes into these days...

You know, I never had the chance to get into Star Trek but I am somewhat familiar with how closely it followed or echoed findings in anthropology and linguistics. My idea behind the SoN and international cooperation in Altera comes from this position: I think most attempts in sci-fi for envisioning "world government" have a US + the world as an afterthought tone, though I don't know if it applies to Star Trek. To me, cultural differences within our species should not be overcome with instant translation or cultural homogenization. I think it's interesting that so many fantasy and sci-fi films and books deal with humans having to accommodate or confront interspecies cultural differences when navigating our current OTL cultural diversity has all the parallels (in fact, is the source material for these sci-fi films and books).

With regards to your question on Jainism: this is really a reference to OTL Jain practices. For the most part, Jains harvest from plants in ways that do not kill/harm the plants. In theory, this means not harvesting tubers and bulbs like carrots, potatoes, and onions, whereas seeds and legume pods and leaves are fine. How far they take this is a matter of debate within their community. I quickly dug up this Reddit thread to help shed some light.

 

[ByteMe]

Now this is amazing - Gene Roddenberry would approve, since it's got a more Star Trek vibe than most modern Star Trek series; if there's something I've noticed about modern science fiction, the utopian spirit that permeated those series until the 1990s (and that is still being pushed by Kim Stanley Robinson) is gone. Even Stargate SG-1, that was made with US Army assistance, had a more optimistic outlook than most modern science fiction works.

Personally, I much rather prefer modern science fiction in their worldbuilding (although I do have a great fondness for KSR, especially with the Mars trilogy). The in-universe lore for older sci-fi generally seems laughable (as bleak as that sounds), as it always has people go 'kumbaya' in the 1990s, form a unitary world government and then focus purely on space exploration past that point.