What I mean by alternate earths is taking current day earth geology, and then applying different realities to it.
For example
- a geographically identical earth but with a machine based civilization
- post apocalyptic earth
- zombie apocalypse earth
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I would say yes, as long as it pertains to the world building (and thus is a fit for the site's scope in the first place).
The site is defined in Area51 as
[a] Q&A site for writers/artists using science, geography and culture to construct imaginary worlds and settings".*
I see nothing there that would suggest that only non-Earth worlds and settings should be allowed.
There are several questions on the Area51 proposal which are fairly highly voted and more or less explicitly deal with humans or our Earth. For example:
- Should research questions be allowed?
- How much similarity to a real (historic or modern) culture is too much in a created world?
- What are the hottest and coldest temperatures that can still support human life?
- What is a realistic population of a medieval village? And what is required to support that number?
- Is there an acceptable range of "width-to-depth" ratio for moving bodies or water (such as rivers, streams, etc.), in soil types found on Earth?
Also, lots of fiction works take place in worlds that greatly resemble our world and society, with anywhere from trivial to fairly large differences. We wouldn't want to bar those questions here.
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$\begingroup$ That's what I figured, but the construct imaginary worlds and settings was what got me. I wasn't sure if that barred earth settings, so i just wanted to be completely clear. $\endgroup$ – user39 Sep 16 '14 at 19:47
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$\begingroup$ @ton.yeung I feel "construct imaginary worlds and settings" ought to be read as "construct imaginary [worlds] and [settings]", not "construct imaginary [worlds and settings]". Note where the "and" goes. $\endgroup$ – user Sep 17 '14 at 10:53
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1$\begingroup$ It's still an imaginary world even if it started from a real one. James Bond is still imaginary even though spies, MI5, etc all exist. $\endgroup$ – Tim B Sep 17 '14 at 11:06
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$\begingroup$ @TimB That's pretty much what I am (meant to be) getting at with my final paragraph. $\endgroup$ – user Sep 17 '14 at 11:30
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$\begingroup$ Yes, I was agreeing with you - although I see my comment wasn't very clear about that. $\endgroup$ – Tim B Sep 17 '14 at 11:53
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$\begingroup$ I definitely agree that "construct imaginary worlds" doesn't mean you are required to build them from scratch. World building can be building from whatever starting level you choose. $\endgroup$ – trichoplax Sep 17 '14 at 21:16
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$\begingroup$ We even have two tags that are 'alternate-*', might be worth adding? $\endgroup$ – Mourdos Apr 17 '15 at 10:17
