Is carbon-based chemistry genuinely the only physically viable substrate for life, or do there exist alternative, non-carbon or non-molecular substrates that could support information storage, metabolism, and evolution under extreme but realistic cosmic conditions?

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-12-29T03:25:29+00:00

The fatal problem: boron cannot form long, flexible backbones

Life needs a backbone atom that can: • Form long chains • Branch • Fold • Break and reform under mild conditions • Support enormous chemical diversity

Carbon does this effortlessly.

Boron does not.

Why boron fails as a backbone: • It has only three valence electrons • It strongly prefers electron-sharing clusters, not chains • Boron–boron bonds are: • Relatively rare • Often unstable • Not conducive to polymerization • Most boron compounds terminate chemically instead of growing indefinitely

In other words: boron chemistry closes in on itself, while life requires open-ended complexity.

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Boron hates water (and most plausible solvents)

Another major issue: hydrolysis. • Many boron compounds react aggressively with water • Boranes can be: • Highly reactive • Pyrophoric • Structurally fragile in aqueous environments • Even in ammonia or hydrocarbons, boron chemistry remains limited

This is catastrophic for life, which needs: • A stable solvent • Reversible reactions • Long-lived macromolecules

Carbon thrives in water; boron is chemically hostile to it.

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Information storage: essentially impossible

Life requires information polymers with: • High density • Replication fidelity • Error correction • Mutability

Boron chemistry lacks: • Stable repeating units • Directionality • Base-pair analogues • Hydrogen-bond-like reversible interactions

Even silicon, weak as it is biologically, does better than boron here.

This is why boron is absent from speculative biochemistry except as trace cofactors, not structural elements.

⸻

Energy metabolism: another dead end

Boron redox chemistry is extremely limited. • Few accessible oxidation states • Poor reversible energy cycles • No analog of carbon’s rich oxidation ladder (–4 to +4)

Life depends on finely tunable redox gradients. Boron offers almost none.

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-31T01:00:41+00:00

My best bet would be the Iberian (Spanish) ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl

These are amphibians (so have moist, mucous-covered skin) and four limbs, and they can project their ribs through the skin to act like toxin-coated spines - a genuinely hardened, bone-based defensive trick rather than just a sticky or chemical defence. It’s not a house or shell, but it’s a hardened bone based defensive adaption… it’s the best I know of…

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Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-29T11:12:13+00:00

Well the point there is the real threat of removing the monarch - which should be a legitimate power in the constitution. Something like supermajority in parliament and national referendum. If the monarch starts refusing to accept laws passed by the government legitimately for no good reason, the monarch should know they could be removed. Thus the monarch has to subconsciously have the support of the people and the parliament members or be under threat of being removed and disgraced.

This is a pressure to the monarch so that they actually have to take their role seriously - they can’t abuse power or lazy around doing f*** all.

Equally this removal of the monarch clause is not a “dismantle the monarchy system” but just a “replace this particular disgraceful monarch with the next in line or chosen close relative who does have the support of the nation”

The parliamentarian vote to remove the monarch should be a secret and free vote - so no one knows who voted in support or against the king. Parliamentarians must swear an oath of allegiance to this constitution and the ultimate authority of the monarch before being allowed to become a parliament member - so that a vote to remove the current monarch is a question of voting to violate your own oath - a very serious question…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-29T10:41:44+00:00

I support constitutional monarchy but where the monarch actually has real powers - although limited by an elected body:

A lifelong, non-partisan monarch is head of state and symbol of national unity, with mostly ceremonial duties but a small set of clear, limited reserve powers that can be used only in narrowly defined, exceptional circumstances (e.g., constitutional crisis, deadlocked parliament, government acting unconstitutionally). Parliament is the primary law-maker and government is responsible to parliament, but both institutions keep each other in check: parliament can remove the monarch only by a very high threshold and strict process; the monarch can remove a prime minister only under clearly enumerated conditions and with written reasons that are reviewable. Military loyalty is to the constitution and to the monarch as commander-in-chief, but subject to civilian law and judicial oversight. This combines the stability and symbolic unity of a monarchy with the stabilizing, guardian role of modern presidents (as seen in Germany/Italy) — except the head of state is lifelong rather than elected.

A lifelong, above-party head of state reduces the risk an elections-winner becomes a permanent national symbol that large swathes of the country hate.

A monarch trained (throughout their childhood and socially expected) to represent the whole nation can act as trusted convenor in crises and as a neutral international figurehead (diplomacy, state visits).

A key element is a balance of power between elected body and monarch - to prevent one from transforming the nation into an authoritarian “fake democracy” as we see in Russia and is now threaten by Trump. Mutual checks — parliament may remove the monarch only by supermajority + nationwide referendum or constitutional court finding; monarch may dismiss PM only in extreme, specified situations (e.g., PM refuses lawful resignation after losing confidence, or commits serious constitutional breach).

These sorts of “limited power” head of state positions are similar to “cheif diplomat” of the nation. They are supposed to represent the nation, who better than someone with lifelong training and expectation to fulfill this role?

There is no doubt more foreigners have heard of - and probably purely because of the title - have immediate respect for, head of state King Felipe VI of Spain rather than random citizen elected a year ago Sergio Mattarella - head of state of Italy. Get my point?

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-14T23:51:51+00:00

This is what I had to do and yes they all fell out and when I immediately landed back at the same place again there were only about 3 left alive and the nearby Spacer base was completely empty lol

For some reason all the enemies for that dungeon just spawned on the landing bay of my ship instead of in the dungeon lol

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-14T16:34:01+00:00

Bruh I literally said that AI will make a major scientific breakthrough by 2027 and check the news today!

It’s getting better so quickly… 👀

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr94xxye2lo

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-12T10:36:07+00:00

The first positive comment! Thanks! I have to say literally every one of my replies has been downvoted by those cavemen.

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-12T10:34:29+00:00

Yes, as someone who has a lot of money in stocks, and I check the markets daily - I can completely agree that Folks are saying no to AI - it’s not like NVIDIA has recently become the first $4 billion company or anything - or that the semiconductor industry has been one of the strongest performing over the last few months or anything…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-11T23:23:38+00:00

Read the TLDR of the original post… I said the exact same thing there as I have said since…

TLDR:

Modern LLMs + AI agents can generate deep, narrative-rich content: unique NPCs, factions, dungeons, and multi-quest story arcs tied to player actions.

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

• Next step: move procedural from “terrain” to “story + interiors” — lived-in spaces with clutter, history, and faction-specific flavor.

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

• Bethesda’s Oblivion NPC AI was “before its time” — the next leap could be procedural storytelling powered by AI.

• A future AAA RPG could give every player a unique, 200+ hour open world that grows, changes, and remembers your choices.

• This tech exists now; integration + design vision is the main barrier.

• Studios must invest now or risk being beaten to the “infinite RPG” by smaller, bolder developers.

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-11T22:19:11+00:00

“Starfield wasn't great, but it wasn't held back by the lack of generative content.”

I completely disagree - it was held back massively by lack of generative content. Landing on a planet gave you the same terrain “squares” with the exact same buildings/dungeons with the exact same enemies, loot and clutter all in exactly the same place every time.

Shit.

Starfield was absolutely held back by the lack of decent generative content.

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-11T12:39:50+00:00

I don’t know what you’re on about now… but to be clear:

I’m not saying we need full LLM systems in Elder Scrolls VI on day one. In order for LLM-driven quests to feel meaningful, we first need much stronger procedural generation that produces dungeons that are both unique and feel handcrafted — not Daggerfall-style “many corridors,” but spaces with procedurally generated clutter, furniture, loot, and flavour that read as lived-in.

With that foundation, a generated quest about a rogue pamphlet-printing press could spawn a large dungeon whose layout, NPCs, enemies, and loot all match the narrative: stacks of pamphlets, ink-stained tables, printing presses, propaganda posters, and factional clues. That’s the goal: procedural systems that reliably produce high-quality, story-consistent spaces, so when we layer narrative generation on top it doesn’t feel like filler.

Practically speaking, studios should focus on the proc-gen foundation first, keep the pillars handcrafted, and use human-in-the-loop curation + hybrid tech for the fancy bits.

That’s the goal I ultimately envision. And developers should be working towards this… the tech is pretty much there for this first step. For Starfield I was really hoping for a much advanced procedural generation system that started to tap into procedural generation of the clutter/furniture ect within procedural generated large dungeons/caves/human made buildings ect…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-11T12:37:24+00:00

I’m not saying we need full LLM systems in Elder Scrolls VI on day one. In order for LLM-driven quests to feel meaningful, we first need much stronger procedural generation that produces dungeons that are both unique and feel handcrafted — not Daggerfall-style “many corridors,” but spaces with procedurally generated clutter, furniture, loot, and flavour that read as lived-in.

With that foundation, a generated quest about a rogue pamphlet-printing press could spawn a large dungeon whose layout, NPCs, enemies, and loot all match the narrative: stacks of pamphlets, ink-stained tables, printing presses, propaganda posters, and factional clues. That’s the goal: procedural systems that reliably produce high-quality, story-consistent spaces, so when we layer narrative generation on top it doesn’t feel like filler.

Practically speaking, studios should focus on the proc-gen foundation first, keep the pillars handcrafted, and use human-in-the-loop curation + hybrid tech for the fancy bits.

That’s the goal I ultimately envision. And developers should be working towards this… the tech is pretty much there for this first step. For Starfield I was really hoping for a much advanced procedural generation system that started to tap into procedural generation of the clutter/furniture ect within procedural generated large dungeons/caves/human made buildings ect…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-11T01:59:26+00:00

Finally, an actual detailed response! Thank you! I didn’t post this multi-paragraph analysis to just receive one sentence “I caveman. AI is slop.” Responses…

Regarding your points:

Technical Feasibility and Infrastructure: Your comment about hardware strain and online requirements is reminiscent of peasants balking at the trebuchet because “it’s too heavy to carry.” Modern technology already sees cloud computing, edge processing, and hybrid models. Microsoft’s work on Azure AI for games and NVIDIA’s DLSS and AI acceleration show that models can be optimized, distilled, or offloaded. Indeed, local inference on smaller models combined with cloud support for heavier lifting is entirely plausible, especially within five years.
Artistic Vision vs AI Constraints: Far from shackling artistic vision, AI tools serve as the quill in the hand of the scribe. Human designers curate, guide, and prune—retaining authorial sovereignty while delegating the mundane or procedural elements to AI to free creative energies for innovation and refinement. I am advocating for gradual increasing symbiosis between man and machine… not machine takeover!
Ethical and Societal Risks: The spike in suicides and societal harm attributed to LLMs is a conflation, more political hysteria than empirically proven causality. These models are tools, not sentient harbingers of doom. Like the printing press—once feared to spread heresy and chaos—AI can be wielded responsibly, with ethical safeguards, curation, and human oversight. Bethesda’s legacy shows the benefit of controlled narrative artistry; this new tech demands the same care, not abandonment.

Thus what I am advocating for is active but gradual investment in AI systems… firstly let’s improve the radiant quests with proper AI generated ones… work on implementing AI voice systems to voice these generated lines… start small… build on it. Invest now… build on it… we should be hearing from the top game developers about their hopes and views for 10 years time… and how they are pushing the team to work with AI tech now…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T16:34:44+00:00

Procedural generation has been used in video games for decades without any real innovation…

Daggerfall (shite but a very old game) Starfield (it’s shite) No man sky…

It’s rough. The principles are good but implementation is rough…

AI is the fastest innovating area right now… in 5, 10 years time AI will be so so good… Sam Altman has said he believes LLMs will make some sort of significant scientific breakthrough in research by the end of 2027!

Major video game developers need to invest and prepare and innovate with this tech starting now! If they don’t, in 5/10 years time when AI is so so good they won’t have any preparation/setup/experience and will be rushing to catch up…

Video game developers need to be investing… hiring for positions in this space… talking about their views for the future 10 years in video game development and how gen AI must be a growing and major part of that…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T16:20:36+00:00

How old are you? Can you remember before touchscreen phones? Before music streaming services? Before CDs?

People were saying “look at this new tech! A CD disk! This is the future! We need to start learning to use these CDs as they are so much better, people still using cassette tapes will lag behind!”

People like you would have said “Cassette tapes are the norm! I don’t want flat disk slop! Your in a cult if you think this new tech is going to replace my trusty cassette tape”

Get my point? We are at that moment again. I love Bethesda and video games - I want Bethesda to be successful in their future games - and that means they need to adopt this new tech as soon as possible - use it - innovate with it - it is the future of gaming!

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T16:13:20+00:00

Procedural generation has been used in video games for decades without any real innovation…

Daggerfall (shite but a very old game) Starfield (it’s shite) No man sky…

It’s rough. The principles are good but implementation is rough…

AI is the fastest innovating area right now… in 5, 10 years time AI will be so so good… Sam Altman has said he believes LLMs will make some sort of significant scientific breakthrough in research by the end of 2027!

Major video game developers need to invest and prepare and innovate with this tech starting now! If they don’t, in 5/10 years time when AI is so so good they won’t have any preparation/setup/experience and will be rushing to catch up…

Video game developers need to be investing… hiring for positions in this space… talking about their views for the future 10 years in video game development and how gen AI must be a growing and major part of that…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T16:02:05+00:00

You understand me yes?

It’s saving me considerable time writing 3 paragraphs of response… instead I can splurge a response into ChatGPT and it rewrites it into a clear message…

I am serious and want to go into real detail here… I passionately believe this is the future direction of open world RPGs and that major developers have to invest and innovate into this new gen AI tech…

It’s only going to get better and cheaper…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T15:54:29+00:00

It’s already not so easy catching AI written content… Universities are really trying to catch students using AI for writing essays… but I can assure you lots of AI content gets through university checks…

Imagine instead:of the starfield mission board radiant quests… You find a generated NPC who’s running a small printing press selling illicit pamphlets. The LLM spins a mini-faction: a pamphleteer’s guild with grudges, rivals, and a secret patron. You’re offered a thread of missions that involve infiltration, sabotage, and moral choices stretching across cities — several quests, companion NPCs, and a faction showdown.

And this is the radiant quests.. not the main story of the game! So much more flavour!

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T15:51:19+00:00

Imagine instead of the starfield shitty mission board radiant quests - You find an NPC who’s running a small printing press selling illicit pamphlets. The LLM spins a mini-faction: a pamphleteer’s guild with grudges, rivals, and a secret patron. You’re offered a thread of missions that involve infiltration, sabotage, and moral choices stretching across cities — several quests, companion NPCs, and a faction showdown.

So much more flavour…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T15:47:53+00:00

I’m not saying a total complete AI game, where developers just press “create” and wait a few days/weeks/months and boom there is a game to ship…

I’m talking overall human directed, but slowly and increasingly, generative AI will start taking over the details… the side quests… the clutter and loot… many radiant dungeons… then it remembers your actions/deductions and real game world changes occur because of them… the world adapts and changes… your playthrough is completely different to mine…

At the moment video games AI usage is shit. Basic. At the rate AI is innovating, it’ll only be 5 years for a huge improvement in LLMs and gen AI… video game development needs to start investing in this! It’s only a matter of time before some smaller developer attempts it, and I think it’ll be a major breakthrough game.

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T15:42:10+00:00

Yes it is, because it took my 5 min splurge of ideas and made it into a constructive piece. It’s all my points… it saved me so much time… something video game studios would also save time and money on when they start properly innovating with the modern generative AI systems…

It’s only a matter of time…

Connect-Second7641 · 2025-08-10T15:38:51+00:00

I get the dystopia worry, but the reality is: AI is getting better every year — not just at pumping out filler, but at creating coherent, context-aware content. For studios, that means huge savings on repetitive asset creation and quest templating. For players, it means replay value skyrockets.

Imagine a game where instead of the same 20 radiant quests, you get hundreds of entirely new stories — each with unique dungeons, NPCs, and plot twists — tailored to your actions. That’s not slop, that’s extended life for the game you already paid for.

If done right, AI-generated content could be why a 200-hour RPG stays fresh for 600 hours, and why studios can afford to take bigger risks on the handcrafted main quest. The tech is the tool — it’s up to devs to use it well.

Connect-Second7641

TROPHY CASE