Activity for Arash Howaida‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	Plausibility of (large) continents on a world with hundreds of tectonic plates Suppose an earth-like world with roughly 500 major tectonic plates. Question What is the plausibility of such a world to sustain (large) continents? Why? Further clarifications: speed of plates: fast or truncated to earth-like, not too slow here number of major plates: 500, and assume no minor... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Question	—	World with dodecahedron-shaped trees Premise I was inspired by Karl Niklas who used computer modeling to simulate the ideal structure for a tree when different traits were favored. Here is a chart summarizing his work: Explanation L (light): horizontal branches M (mechanical stability): fewer horizontal branches R (reproduction): ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Question	—	World of (nearly) identical snowflakes In a lab at Caltech Ken Libbrecht has been simulating snowflake formation and under absurdly exact laboratory conditions, they have been able to create almost identical snowflakes. Clearly, in the real world, we do not observe identical snowflakes because each snow flake has different conditions as... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Question	—	What kind of world would drive brains to evolve high-throughput sensory? Here on "Earth" organisms tend to evolve only enough mental processing power to handle sensory inputs in modest amounts. Taking "human" brains for a quick example, even though we have millions of sensory receptors all over our body that can feed touch, smell, visual and audio information to our brain... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	Ancient Egypt - Primitive Blockchain Technology Premise The goal is to implement a bronze age version of blockchain in ancient Egypt to introduce a layer of security for the royal tombs. Tomb raiding was rampant, and at times even the legitimate successor would loot his own predecessor's tomb. Family looting aside, there were punishments for th... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Determining factor(s) for making creatures robust to square cubed law Premise and research I am simply trying to find a reproducible framework for use with creature-design. In my research I have found the larger an animal is, the more likely that animal is to break its bones, generally speaking. Larger animals would need thicker bones to handle the higher stress loads... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	What mechanisms need to be in place for an advanced, peaceful society to retain high testosterone levels? While by no means a smoking gun, there is still a reasonable amount of empirical evidence on the notion that socialization and testosterone are negatively correlated. Archaeological Evidence From the archaeological side, Robert Cieri submits that certain skeletal features (heavy brows, upper face)... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Extreme adaptation: evolutionary narrative for Vantablack-like skin pigment Premise Inhabiting my earth-like world will be humanoid beings that have a skin tone that is as dark as Vantablack. Let's assume these human-like beings share the same ancestry as humans and we can safely assume cognition and physique to be identical to humans. The only difference being their skin i... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Time Warp: Modern chemist as court alchemist Premise The premise is an adept modern chemist is transported back in time and is to serve as the court alchemist to a wealthy prince in the late 16th century. Assumptions: "Transmuting" gold is the chief goal, but the prince would possibly consider allowing for a different output to be yielded f... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Planet-wide vocalizations: is there a natural limit preventing it? Premise I recently recalled when the Chelyabinsk meteor crashed overhead in 2013. The pressure wave was immense. The infrasounds, as recorded by nuclear missile detectors, appeared to traverse the entirety of the Earth. Then I began to wonder, could infrasounds from an organism also traverse the e... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Aliens to play a mischievous space-time practical joke on Earth Premise Suppose an earth-like world in the near-future. Then aliens come and decide to play a mischievous trick on this world on an epic scale. The goal is to disrupt Earth's time by 18 minutes. Specifically, they wish to make the time on Earth 18 minutes slower within 24 hours. It's a one-off prank... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Malign Science: Counter argument for KT boundary Premise This is a world in which humans are blissfully unaware of their own vulnerability. Needless to say, there are many vulnerabilities to address, however, this question deals only with the vulnerability of cosmic objects impacting Earth causing mass extinction events. The people of this world a... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Which part of the universe would make celestial navigation most difficult for a planet? Premise I envisage a world of would-be navigators with roughly Bronze Age technology, sailing on ships to explore their planet. In contrast to our history of navigation where we "cracked the code" around the dawn of our Bronze Age, I want the narrative of sea navigation on this world to be as arduou... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Evolution: Tilting the scales of the arms race between cobras and mongooses Often times a mongoose will prefer easier prey than a cobra. However, getting down to brass tacks, should the two fight, it's fairly axiomatic that the mongoose takes the win the majority of the time. I haven't found any studies that formally record the win/loss ratio, but let's guesstimate the mongo... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Trans-humans: neural chip implants and the Dunning-Kreuger effect Premise The Dunning-Kruger effect is a sociological / psychological phenomenon whereby low-skilled individuals mistakenly think they are good at something. In other words, individuals lack the meta-cognition needed to give an unbiased evaluation of their competence, which leads to an unwarranted lev... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Creature Design: Wind world ectotherm Premise By definition, an ectotherm uses environmental heat sources to regulate its own body temperature. The most common forms of body heat regulation that we observe from ectotherms here on Earth are: basking changing colors soaking burrowing clustering together with others Some of these may b... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Terrestrial ectotherms outside the habitable zone Premise We have found extremophiles of the aquatic and microscopic types here on Earth, but so far large terrestrial extremophiles are the stuff of conjecture only. This makes it somewhat challenging to speculate whether terrestrial creatures could survive on a moon heated by tidal forces of a large... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Siamese Twin Planets? Premise I want to explore the possibility of a planet that is extremely misshapen. If we were to extrapolate what we have observed from our solar system and the extra-solar planets discovered so far, we would have to be conservative about such a possibility because nothing of the sort has been disco... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Massive Meteor Net? Premise Suppose a world has no other means to deal with a potentially devastating meteor impact than creating a net on the planet. Their hope is that the massive net will catch the meteor and slow it down as much as possible to avoid apocalypse. They have ample time to prepare for the collision, but... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	How do I maximize a planet's wave height (on average)? Premise I am in the formation phase of a fictional world. I would like one of its notable characteristics to be extremely large waves. On Earth, most of our large waves are triggered by earthquakes, landslides and things to that effect. Here is an example from 2005: The graph makes the Earth tsun... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	How close to complete speciation can a devout group of people who want to grow wings or glide get? Premise Suppose a cult has been receiving special "visions" of doom far off into the future. Even though this prophecy of doom is not impending in the here and now, these cultists are very long-term minded and buy into it whole heartedly. The visions tell them to grow wings and fly, or at the very l... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Secret Hangar Location Needed for Entropy-sensitive Nano-bots Premise In this Earth-like world, a multi-billion dollar privately owned aerospace/defense corporation is devising a secret plan to manufacture a fleet of nano-bots. These nano-bot have swarm intelligence and appear as a silver metallic tempest once fully deployed and airborne. After years of simula... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	How should fledgling planet colonies deal with supply crews suffering from barophobia (fear of gravity)? Premise In the movie Gravity, gravity embodies the persona of the film by virtue of its absence. It purportedly leaves the audience with a sense of fear of the chaotic zero-G environment and likewise leaves them with new respect/appreciation for our gravity-exerting Earth. In stark contrast, I would... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Question	—	How could polycephaly evolve as a byproduct of natural selection? Why this question is different from existing questions... The closest question to mine is Anatomically Correct Cerberus. It is clear from the answers to that question and indeed it's axiomatic to the scientific community at large that polycephaly is not a particularly useful trait in OUR world. Ther... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Question	—	How close to Impossible can Navigation be on a Jungle Planet (for a Stone Age Civilization)? Premise I would like to create a world that is rendered nearly impossible to navigate by natural circumstances. In my particular world, a thick jungle covers the whole planet from pole to pole; this gives the planet an eerie monotonous vibe. I'm trying to account for as many variables as I can. I'm ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Could a Tidally Locked Moon Ever be "Unlocked" via Artificial Means? Premise The motivation as to why one would want to give a tidal locked moon a spin is out of the scope of this question. I only want to focus on the feasibility. Suffice to say there could be a few hypothetical reasons such as a night/day cycle for prospective inhabitants. Question If there is a m... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Can a Planet's Magnetosphere be Strengthened Artificially? Premise One of the many conditions needed to support life (as we know it) is a planet with a surface protected from deadly radiation from a sun or even other sources. In the grand scheme of things, the probability of finding a planet that meets every requirement may be rather slim. That is to say, t... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	What Factors would Likely Govern the Degree of Similarity between Intelligent Aliens and Humans? Premise Let me begin by citing the intellectually charged and equally comical banter between physicist Brian Cox and "Doctor Who": (aliens appear on console) Dr. Who: "That's a silent; you gotta admire a monster who puts on a tie." Cox: "An intelligent bi-pedal lifeform, that's a near ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Could Non-Baryonic Matter Ever Support Computer Architecture? Premise In a world set 10^40 years from now, or in cosmological decade 60 (a cosmological decade is a long term measure of time such that each successive increment represents a ten-fold increase in the total age of the universe), there will be no remnants of cosmological features that are familiar t... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Pure Bio vs Pure Cyber Trans-Humans - Would they be a Good Match for Each Other? In this world, there are two trans-human species that are emerging at the same time. They vehemently despise each other and conflict is fast approaching. I would like to make the struggle between the two trans-humans as hard-fought as possible. If I cannot realistically make the struggle close, and t... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Question	—	Sabotage of Biosphere after Doomsday Event Premise After an unfathomably powerful mass extinction event ALL life (fauna, flora, even extremaphiles and microbes) have died off. The Earth was then sterile for an undetermined amount of time. Then one day, deep in an underground facility a computer system from the human era boots up and the word... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Question	—	What Natural Forces could Make Intelligence/Technology a Disadvantage or at Least Inferior to Something Else? Premise I'm creating a pre-history world to attempt to demonstrate an alternative sequence of events. I would like natural forces to somehow make natural selection view intelligence/technology as inferior. At current, it all seems too predictable; the most technologically advanced tribe always wins.... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Question	—	How Effective Could we Expect a Subliminal Programming Facility to Brainwash People be in the Near-future? The current technology around this subject is somewhat hard to gauge. For obvious ethical reasons, there is not a lot of empirical precedents. Also, given that it's subliminal, it is by nature difficult/if not impossible to perceive for the targets. For these reasons, extrapolating into the future (5... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Question	—	Making Fortifications Viable in the Arms Race Again As the title suggests, I'm trying to make the bunker viable in the arms race again. Note that does not mean it has to be indestructible. While some may contend that the bunker will lose the arms race eventually, or that it's better to just burrow deep in the earth. To this, I say: I do not want to t... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Question	—	Best/Realistic Way to Acclimate Astronauts to Zero G I'm trying to provide a somewhat realistic explanation of how astronauts were able to overcome the harmful physiological effects of prolonged zero G exposure. As of 2017, issues include: bone/calcium loss (presumably permanent), muscle atrophy, cardio-vascular atrophy and the list goes on to include ... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Question	—	Unlimited Stellar Fusion Thought Experiment As far as we know stars have a limited fusion cycle. Once they fuse elements up to the element iron, there is no subsequent energy that can be released through fusion, given the inherent atomic structure of the element iron. So premise aside, my thought experiment is: if advanced beings were able t... (more)	—	about 7 years ago