Interview With Dougal
Dixon
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On September 4, 2009, Dee Dee Rivera, of UMG Productions,
conducted an interview with the pioneer of speculative evolution himself,
Dougal Dixon for Metazoica. You may remember Dixon as the creator of
the Future is Wild and After Man. He has also authored many books on
the subject of speculative biology and evolution. He is a great man! And
great to interview! The interview has been presented in Metazoica's blog.
But here, I have decided to post it again for the readers of this site.
Dixon's words are presented here in bold.
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1. What got you interested in speculative biology in the first place?
Always interested in dinosaurs, since about 5 years old. From there it was a small step to
other strange-looking animals. And if the strange-looking animals had some scientific
plausibility then that would fit in better with my scientific education.
2. How often have you thought about speculative biology?
Frequently.
3. What was your goal with your first speculative biology project?
AFTER MAN was a popular level book on evolution. But whereas all popular books on
evolution look towards the past, and see what has happened, I wanted to look towards the
future to see what might happen. Not a firm prediction but rather an exploration of
possibilities. The result is a picture book of funny animals, but with each funny animal
telling some story about evolution or ecology. Fictitious examples of factual processes, so
that the novelty would draw people in to find out more.
4. What other sciences do you study?
Two degrees in geology, with a special interest in fossils and evolution. Masters thesis on
palaeogeography - tracing the history of the landscapes of the British Isles throughout
known geological time.
5. Among those, which do you find yourself most drawn to?
Palaeontology.
6. And why?
See above.
7. Are you currently working on anything new in the speculative biology field?
Second series of THE FUTURE IS WILD.
My novel GREENWORLD will be published in Japan this year. Again it deals with fictitious
examples of factual processes - in this case the relationship between Homo sapiens and
the natural environment - but set on an alien planet. A planet with a whole thriving
ecosystem, based on the same biochemical principles that we have here on Earth. Human
settlers - evacuated from an overpopulated and polluted Earth - arrive and set up a
civilization. We follow the first thousand years of settlement, in which every environmental
disaster caused by humans on Earth is repeated. Every incident has its counterpart in
Earth's history. Told as a series of short stories, dealing with subsequent generations of a
few principal families, and the whole thing building into a kind of a dynastic epic.
Illustrated by excerpts from field guides, herbals, bounty notices, recipes, zoo
advertisments, scientific papers - all aimed at the characters, not the reader. The reader is
an eavesdropper here.
8. Do you consider yourself tops in the growing field of speculative biology?
Others do! I seem to be the go-to guy when it comes to that.
9. What would you say is your greatest accomplishment in any scientific field?
In my case, from my day job as a science writer, to inspire others to take an active interest
in the fields of science.