I have a number of passions in my life. Over the coming months I will likely share many of them with you.
Obviously one of these passions is the creation of Minecraft related content on Youtube, something I spend many happy hours of my life invested in. Another, you may already know, is science.
As I stated in a previous blog, I am trained in marine biology. In addition to that, molecular and micro biology are strings to my scientific bow. These have made me naturally curious about the world around me and science in general. It is as much a passion as Minecraft.
There is nothing as fun as when two passions come together, (except perhaps when many collide), so I spend a lot of time wondering; How can I bring my love of Science and my love of Minecraft to the viewers of my videos without becoming an Open University lecture.
I have a relatively unique opportunity to share some pretty awesome stuff with people, young and old. There is so much to know and learn that its difficult to find a place to start and even more difficult to make it interesting for a wide audience.
Thats not to say I want to stop derping around my Let’s Play world of Avomancia, or making the other members of AlphaCraft facepalm with my lack on experience and knowledge of the game’s complexities. I actually love that part of my persona, probably because its exactly me.
However, to be able to expand the horizons of people using a format that they are familiar with is both exciting, and also a responsibility.
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and for some of my viewers I MIGHT be their first impression of the subject I love. Woah! Dizzy!!
So I sit looking out of my window wondering “how can I do this”. This is the reason why I have yet to start!
But its time to man up!
I have never been accused of thinking small, so I am going to go about as big as I can in my “first” outing and present the history of the planet, from molten blob to a society scoring around 0.7 on the Kardashev scale… in blocks!
My current project is to present the geological history of Planet Earth, using Minecraft. It’s likely to take a while!
Honestly, I have very little idea how I am going to do this, or how I will present it, but the idea excites and scares me. I like that!
I may even put out other SciPhile videos that I haven’t even thought about yet before this one… I can see it being a serious labour of love.
But I think it will be worth it!
The biggest challenge, I think, is to make sure that I don’t take too many Eons to finish it, or all the calculations will be totally off when it gets published!
Which leads me to look to you, the Patron and Member community, for thoughts and ideas.
What other “science type stuff” do YOU think might be interesting to represent in Minecraft?
What would the younger viewers think “WOW” to and the older viewers find worthwhile?
Do you even think this is something that people would enjoy? The passion in me may cloud my judgement a little to the reality of consumer desires, although the teacher in me says that shouldn’t matter and I should let the passion flow! Its contagious!
Really looking forward to your thought, as always!
I look forward to seeing this as it goes and when finished. I remember an Earth Science museum I went to once and they had a white board sign about 18 inches tall that started at the entrance and contained the timeline of the earth from formation to present day and the length was tied to the amount of time since it had hash marks around the top and bottom edges with solid lines for the various epochs and periods. It started on your right at about 8 feet so displays could be put under it and ran the length of the room, turned and the full width then turned again about half the width of the room then turned and ran almost the whole length again. Very detailed. I would say that room was about 50 feet long by 20 feet wide so that sign was at least 160-200 feet long. The recorded history of mankind was the last inch of that sign. It made you realize two things: How much time has gone by since the earth was formed and how much mankind has achieved in so small a period of time. It gave perspective to our existence.
Really looking forward to seeing how you do it.
EXACTLY Donald… I am going to have to make each block several million years… or look at it Logarithmically somehow or the line will be millions of blocks long!
Goodness knows when I’ll actually do this… maybe something for Christmas 🙂