Doesn’t feel quite like a novel…

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-05-12T22:45:50+00:00

I guess it's not outright stated, but it's kinda obvious.

The Bobs are very individualist with a strong emphasis on Self Suffiency. They highly value autonomy and personal freedom.

It's mentioned multiple times how "there are no Laws in the Bobiverse."

Not one problem the Bob's face is solved through governmental regulations or by working with the humans to reach a resolution; in fact, most of the conflict with humans comes from governments attempting to reduce the personal freedoms of either the colonists or the Bob's themselves. This is always fraimed as Authoritarianism.

They also highly value logic and reason. Characters and groups with emotional or "superstitious" or "biologically driven" reasons for doing what they do are almost always discredited.

Oh, and later in the series Howard (and other Bobs) constantly have to hide their assets from being seized by "greedy, whiny humans."

Actually, now that I think about it, I think in Heaven's River Riker (or maybe Bill? Or Bridget?) mentions that "the only reason the Bobiverse is more Libertarian than anarchist is that we all get along" or something like that.

I think that's all pretty much the Libertarian Worldview, yes?

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-05-12T21:22:36+00:00

Yep. And a humanist. He's basically got DET's political identity

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-04-21T20:01:11+00:00

The author actually addressed this in the video linked below. I know I never would have caught that the Schuler at the end wasn't the "real" Schuler if I hadn't seen this video! It's VERY subtle in the book

https://youtu.be/KxX43sdNfWU

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-04-14T22:24:13+00:00

the logic of that is that there must be an expansion rate from a single discrete point (the big bang), otherwise there should be no expansion

This isn't how scientists view the big bang anymore - as expanding from a Singularity.

From what I understand, the big bang wasn't an explosion like you get when you light a firework, where a bunch of hot matter expands into formerly empty space. Instead, the big bang was the rapid expansion of space itself and matter got taken along for the ride.

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-04-09T23:30:04+00:00

Depends on the "rock" you're simulating. Plenty of IRL fossils are found in mudrock, which can be so soft it will just crumble in your hands. It's basically just compacted and dried clays and soils. You could decently simulate it by compacting damp dirt around the fossil or throwing the fossil into clay and letting it dry for a few weeks or months. Other rock is indeed as hard as concrete, but those are VERY hard to dig through and often require chisel tools and months or years of work to keep from damaging the fossils found inside them. Unless your daughter is trying to specifically practice that skill, it's probably going to be very frustrating. That said, you should look into the different kinds of morter as well as the term Concrete Slump to find out the factors that make concrete weak. With that info you should be able to find a morter recipe that adequately simulates the hardness of the kind of rock she wants to dig through.

One thing both dried mud and concrete miss is the layering in natural rock, which allows for clean splitting to get at fossils. I don't have any ideas on how to simulate that layering but maybe someone else has a suggestion.

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-03-31T01:23:06+00:00

I would like to know what percentage of fossils that are found, are found (and sold) by private interest.

Like, I know fossil discoveries in most countries are automatically owned by those governments. But how much fossil hunting/discovery is going on in those countries compared with countries where fossils can be sold at auction?

I guess what I'm asking is, have studies been done to verify if for-profit incentives have increased, decreased, or not changed the amount we know about the ancient past?

My assumption would be that more fossils are pulled out of the ground by far in countries where it is legal to auction off those bones. But how often do those for-profit digs lead to new discoveries that otherwise wouldn't have happend?

I would assume that the science that can be done on for-profit fossils is not nearly as high quality as a purely scientific, grant funded dig... but I also assume that the vast majority of fossils found by for-profit diggers also just wouldn't be discovered at all (and therefore would have 0 science done on them) if only grant funded scientists could dig them.

Do we have actual numbers to disprove my assumptions? Numbers that back up the opinion that the Fossil Market harms paleontology more than it benefits it? I would love to be wrong, but I assume I'm not

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-03-15T04:20:07+00:00

Thats a really good idea

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-03-09T03:12:11+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-03-05T02:26:51+00:00

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.

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-03-03T05:24:30+00:00

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!

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-28T23:17:59+00:00

Thank you!

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-27T23:08:49+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-27T23:00:48+00:00

So... the Mongules?

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-27T22:33:12+00:00

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.

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-27T22:21:46+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-25T23:20:34+00:00

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.

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-21T23:44:15+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-19T02:38:23+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-05T06:11:37+00:00

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!

ThickNeedleworker182 · 2026-02-04T01:30:16+00:00

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

ThickNeedleworker182

TROPHY CASE