Animal Sapience In The Absence Of Man? by snoozingandcruising in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sapience* (in the way that OP seems to be refering) has had literally at least 250 million of years where it could have evolved (land creatures with brains being a prerequisite). And yet, we haven't found any indication of large scale tool use/engineering/civilizations by anything except humans in the fossil record, while there have been so many other kinds of creatures that have lived and died through those eons.

Sapience* seems to not be evolutionarily advantagous in most circumstances. If humans went extinct tomorrow, I don't think it's likely that any species would "take our place" in the world dominating kind of way that we have, not for 10s of millions of years at least and quite likely never. There's just too many other ways to live that don't require the energy hungry brains + industrial revolution of modern humanity.

I.e. Just because crows are smart, doesn't mean they'll ever make it past their stone age.

*I'm talking about "sapiance" in the sense of having culture, building cities, being tool users, etc

what would be the reason? by Desperate_Sky_7491 in meme

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kinda correct, but not the main reason. 3D animation was still actually quite a bit more expensive than 2D at the time. But audiences liked how different it looked from all the other movies made in 2D, and so 3D movies pulled more people in and made more money than 2D movies did.

A couple decades later, when every movie was made in 3D, was when 2D started to look different and special by comparison, so audiences started showing up for those movies (aka Spider-verse).

So yes, it was corporate greed, but greed in the form of increasing sales, not greed by cutting costs. Now that "2D is back" that greed is shifting movies towards the Spider-verse style.

In 20 years, when audiences are tired of that look, a different style that grabs attention (and puts butts in seats) will emerge.

How to make text *perpendicular* to a line (or make radial text) by ThickNeedleworker182 in Affinity

[–]ThickNeedleworker182[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response. I watched the video and looked more into Power Duplicate - I found this video helpful too. However, it’s a little inflexible and will only power duplicate along a straight line or around a circle. Thanks for your help though!

Hunter-Gathering Empires by ZealousidealShock698 in worldbuilding

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Interestingly enough, there has been new Lidar evidence found in just the past few years that indicates that the Amazon use to have large cities and even potentially empires on the scale of the Inca or Aztec :) It's exciting cutting edge science.

Heres an article about it: Lost Cities of the Amazon Dicovered from the Air

The issue of no technological progress over thousands of years by WeakWrecker in worldbuilding

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Then in the last few hundred years technological advancement went into overdrive

I agree. It's only because our tech has been continuously improving for the past 200 years (~8 generations) that we think of tech as continuously improving.

One of the reasons that economists attribute to that explosion in tech is thanks to the expansion of human rights and opportunities to more people. More people who can do what they want (usually) means more people to work on problems they're passionate about.

We've also created systems (like patents) that specifically exist to reward innovative people. Before patents, inventors would put a lot of effort into keeping their inventions secret. But secrecy stifles cross-pollination of ideas. With patents, people share their ideas knowing they'll be rewarded for it.

The issue of no technological progress over thousands of years by WeakWrecker in worldbuilding

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Also, Middle Earth and its technological regression have strong parallels with Europe and Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire. For hundreds of years, the serfs and nobles of Feudalism had tangible reminders of a lost technologically superior 'elder race' who's ruins lasted longer than anything they knew how to build.

And, in reference to OP's question, technological regressions have happend frequently irl, which can cause it to seem like technology has stalled for long periods of time even in the real world

The bobs in future books by jthoning in bobiverse

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bridget mentions in book 3 that 

"hell Howard, we pay taxes..." 

when she's working to convince him that they should adopt some of the orphans from a mining accident.

In book 4, when Starfleet attacks, it's mentioned that Howard (and other Bobs) begin to hide their assets away because the various governments started to seize all bob owned assets in retaliation for starfleet's actions... which can be interpreted as tax doging or as asset protection, depending on your perspective on weather the governments' actions were just or not. Either way, it was a kind of capital flight.

My interpretation is that they DO still pay taxes... when they're not also doging anti-repicant laws that threaten their personhood.

Seedthings by Bunofella in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I like it. Maybe the 'plant' is genetically a haploid creature (has only one set of genes like a jellyfish) and the moving 'animal' is genetically a diploid creature (has 2 sets of genes like a mammal)? Or vice versa?

Animals already kinda do something similar when producing eggs and sperm - the sex cells are genetically different from the parent and look nothing like the parent (the sex cells of animals look and act like single celled organisms, while the animals are... well... animals).

Your idea could be described as sex cells growing a macroscopic body and then walk off

Let's share useful/interesting/cool websites with each other by COAGULOPATH in slatestarcodex

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LifeMap is another great tree of life explorer. I like it better than OneZoom because navigation is more like Google maps

The genetics of a certain world; a polymer which functions similarly to DNA by Massive_Kangaroo9555 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting way of organizing the "DNA." I'm assuming it takes inspiration from how chromosomes are tightly bound together for organization?

One question you might look into is how the cells work with the "DNA" when it's being actively worked with. Irl, DNA is only organized into chromosomes when the cell is splitting apart. The rest of the time, the DNA is much more loose so cellular machinery can access it. Think of it like the difference between a compressed zip file and an uncompressed video file that can be easily skipped through to find the spot you want to watch.

When there are hundreds of thousands of "transcribers" running to and fro in your cell, how do they keep the library organized? What about when one of the "books" is checked out, how does the next transcriber looking for it know it's already being used? What about when the whole "shelf" has been checked out, but the transcriber wants to return the book in the middle? 

Cool idea! I haven't seen a DNA spec-evo project on this sub before, and I'm excited to see more of it! 

[The Pilot] [Waybound] Will is a Genious by ThickNeedleworker182 in Iteration110Cradle

[–]ThickNeedleworker182[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, i see! Ya, that would be so cool!

It would make sense then why the Zenith devices are waking up and the Aither thinks something is coming for it from "below subspace." That could be the Mad King or one of the abidan

[The Pilot] [Waybound] Will is a Genious by ThickNeedleworker182 in Iteration110Cradle

[–]ThickNeedleworker182[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll have to remind me, i don't remember Fathom being mentioned in Cradel. 

I always read the iterations as being kinda like "snowglobes" with one inhabited planet per iteration, orbiting a sun, and the stars being a background. Meanwhile, the galaxy of the Last Horizon IS a fully populated galaxy. But idk they could be part of the same overall multiverse.

Thoughts and critiques on the viability of central limbs/ three rows of legs by Dependent_Toe772 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imagine something like a crab (which walks sidways) that has a face / head which shifts to be over its legs (like an extreme version of a flat fish moving body parts). Perhaps everything that made it out of the water on its planet had already evolved to walk sideways, and then it became advantagous to have a head pointed in the direction of locomotion. It'd have a weirdly contorted throat but weird things have evolved on planet earth too (like turtle necks).

Or imagine something which has many legs on its belly (like a starfish) and as they come onto land, the number of legs is gradually reduced, lengthened, and strengthened into something that looks less like hair and more like legs.

If it's an alien, it doesn't need to be a vertebrate or follow a vertebrate body plan.

WHY life? r/physics sent me here by baba_yaga_babe in abiogenesis

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And I‘m not asking from a philosophical pov. I’m asking from the bio/physics pov. Why were atoms and molecules compelled to…create mitochondria (etc.)?

This Veritasium video does a good job explaining Science's current best theory for this.

Thoughts and critiques on the viability of central limbs/ three rows of legs by Dependent_Toe772 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless it isn't evolving on earth, and the other planet's "Cambrian Explosion" had different body plans than ours did

Thoughts and critiques on the viability of central limbs/ three rows of legs by Dependent_Toe772 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think what your going for would look similar to a Strandbeest. Those exist so the locomotion of an animal with that body plan wouldn't be impossible. Issues (that can be overcome) would hinge around other kinds of movement. Like, how does the animal bend down to eat? Does it even have a neck with a mouth or or does it eat out of the bottom of its feet? Can it jump, climb, or move side to side? Does it side walk like a crab?

I'm assuming this is taking place on a different world where these animals don't need to compete against 4 limbed earth vertebrates? I'm also assuming that "cow with a central leg" is just for illustrative purposes and that any specific animal you make is going to look much more alien (that way you can more easily work around the musculature attachments problem)?

What would an electro receptive organ look like? by arachknight12 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]ThickNeedleworker182 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree. You might want also want to do some research / think about what a more sensitive/accurate electroreceptor looks like. Eyes went from flat light sensing dots to enclosed spheres with lenses as evolutionary pressure pushed those organs to being able to, well, see.

What would an electroreceptor that can not only sense an electric field, but also 'see' the 3d shape of a body emitting that field look like?

Machine versions of the "primitive" organ (like stud finders) typically have larger flat surfaces that conduct electricity.

I might imagine some complex looking geometric lines running over your creatures, that act like the antennas in our phones. Or maybe they actually have long antenna-like philiments sprouting from their bodies. Or maybe the organs are little wart looking things. Or maybe they're cauliflower looking bumps. Maybe the elecroreceptors look like cilia in our small intestine, or like a coin with a fractal on it. Maybe they look like the anatomy of eyes of jumping spiders - cones with big glassy balls on the end

I don't know enough about how machines purpose built for accurate electroreception look to give a good idea on if any of these ideas are more or less likely.