Activity for Anders Gustafson
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
Geckos walking on two legs I was thinking of a situation, in which there is a mass extinction that wipes out all large land animals, and after this mass extinction some of the descendants of modern geckos evolve to fill the niches left by the large mammals. Some of these descendants of geckos also evolve to walk on two legs s... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Could a land vertebrate re-evolve gills after moving back into the water? I know there are examples of land vertebrates moving back into the oceans, such as in the case of whales, and marine reptiles, but in every case that I know of when a land vertebrate moves back into the water it continues to breath air, and come back up to the surface to take a breath. Could a land ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Could a non sentient land animal evolve an innate knowledge for making boats? I understand that some non human animals build structures that they innately know how to build, such as how birds innately know how to build nests, and spiders innately know how to make webs, and beavers innately know how to build lodges. Could a land animal evolve to innately know how to build a bo... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Bronze Age Underwater Civilization I was thinking of an alternate history, in a part of a civilization, living along the Eastern Mediterranean, during the Bronze Age moves to the sea floor to found an underwater civilization. They build underwater homes on the sea floor, and use buckets to transport air from the surface of the Medite... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Schwarzschild Metric in a universe with the same space time metric as that described in the orthogonal series, but with massive gravitons? The universe described in the orthogonal series http://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html is one, in which the minus sign in the space time interval is replaced with a plus sign. So this universe has four fundamentally similar dimensions rather than three space like dimensions and one time like ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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How might star formation work in a universe similar to the one described in the orthogonal series? In our universe, in order for a cloud of gas to collapse into a star it needs to release heat energy in the form of radiation, so that it can cool down enough to collapse into a star. I read what Greg Egan said about the Riemannian Universe on his website https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/ORTHOGON... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Could a life form evolve an organ for generating temperatures less than a degree Kelvin above absolute zero? I was thinking of a life form with a similar surface temperature to Earth, as well as a similar temperature variation to that of Earth. Could such a life form evolve an organ for generating temperatures a fraction of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero? If so how might such an organ work, and what ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Would intelligence affect the evolution of colorful display patters for attracting mates? On another planet there is a group of organisms that have colorful display patterns allowing them to attract mates. Eventually a branch of this type of organism evolves the intelligence of early humans. Could their intelligence affect how they select for color patterns in mates, and so affect, the ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Would dumping vast amounts of electric charge into a traversable wormhole be a viable way to keep the wormhole open? It's possible to have lots of electric charge while having only a small amount of mass, and a black hole with a significant electric charge has properties that are different from one with no electric charge of the same mass, as a black hole with a significant electric charge has an inner horizon, in ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Would a life form with the intelligence of a human but without an appendage for manipulating its environment be able to have advanced technology? On another planet there is a life form that has the same level of intelligence as humans on Earth, but it has no appendage to manipulate its environment. It has similar social structures to humans before farming was invented. Also it has a language that is of similar complexity to the languages of ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Creating a wormhole connecting two universes with different spacetime metrics? A civilization wishes to create a wormhole connecting its universe to a universe with a different spacetime metric. For instance if we describe a timelike dimension with $+$ symbol and a spacelike dimension with $-$ symbol then this wormhole could connect a universe with the spacetime metric $(---+)... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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How might an advanced civilization separate astronomical amounts of Magnesium Ions from astronomical amounts Oxygen Ions? An advanced civilization collects enough Magnesium and Oxygen, from all over the Galaxy, to equal the mass of a star, and then reacts the Magnesium and Oxygen to produce Magnesium Oxide. The civilization then decides to separate the Magnesium Ions from the Oxygen Ions and put all the Magnesium Ions ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How might a civilization artificially keep a supermassive black hole electrically charged for the lifetime of the black hole? A civilization creates a supermassive black hole with an electric charge such that the radius of its inner horizon is 3/4 the radius of its outer horizon. In nature, a black hole with this much electric charge would be neutralized by particles of opposite electric charge falling into the black hole.... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What might a giant space bubble be made of? In one of the most empty regions of space between the galactic superclusters there is a giant space bubble, with a radius of about 1,000,000 light years. Most of this bubble is one molecule thick although parts of it are two molecules thick as molecules stick to the base layer of molecules of this s... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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Gravity in the Riemannian Universe I was reading about the Riemannian Universe http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html I noticed that Greg Egan doesn't seem to talk about how Gravity would work in the Riemannian Universe. For Galilean Relativity there is Newtons Law of Gravity and for Lorentzian Relativity the... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How might an organism that is made from neutron superfluid store genetic information? I was thinking of a set of life forms that originates from neutron superfluid inside a neutron star. So these life forms are not made of atoms but are made entirely of neutrons. How might this life store genetic information and how might it copy this genetic information? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could a universe with a relativity that is a cross between Galilean and Lorentzian Relativity be self consistent? I was thinking of a universe in which there is a relativity that is between Galilean and Lorentzian Relativity. In this universe there would be effects of length contraction and time dilation but it would not be according to the Lorentz Factor. In this universe there would be no cosmic speed limit ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What types of lifeforms might this cold world have? The average temperature on this world surface is −55 degrees Celsius. 80% of the surface of this world is covered by liquid ammonia oceans. This planet has a surface gravity of 0.75"‰g. The atmosphere of this world is 93% elemental nitrogen 3% elemental hydrogen gas, 3.5% diborane gas, and 0.5% ot... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could there be a type of mass that moves in a direction perpendicular to its momentum? Positive mass moves in the same direction as its momentum and if negative energy exists then it would move in the opposite direction from its momentum. I was thinking of a type of mass, known as "side mass," that would move in a direction perpendicular to its momentum. Could this type of mass exist... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How big could an organism that lives its entire life in outer space get before collapsing from its own gravity? I was thinking of an organism that lives its entire life in outer space. It would be shaped like a rocket and have skin to pressurize its insides so that its internal organs are pressurized even when it lives in the vacuum of space and the skin also protects its internal organs from space junk. Wha... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What type of food might an organism that lives its entire life in interstellar space eat? I was thinking of an organism that lives its entire life in interstellar space It eats, defecates, moves, grows, ejects eggs, attracts mates, and has sex in interstellar space. It has skin that pressurizes its insides so that its insides are pressurized even when the organism lives in the vacuum of... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could there be a universe in which energy divided by distance is conserved? In our universe energy is conserved. In a parallel universe could energy divided by distance be a conserved quantity instead of energy itself? So in this universe if two objects were to move away from each other at a constant rate the total energy of the system would increase at a constant rate. W... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could a person survive in an environment in which the Gs increase by 50% every month for 14 months if the environment started at 1G? In this case the person would experience 292Gs by the end of the 14 months, which should be enough to kill him/her but, considering that it would have taken 14 months for the environment to reach an acceleration instead of the environment suddenly accelerating at 292Gs that would cause the person to ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Why might a plant evolve a brain and the ability to move? I was thinking of a situation in which an Extra Terrestrial plant life form evolves a nervous system and eventually a brain. This plant diversifies into a variety of different life forms with some living in the water, some living on land, and some flying through the sky. It is able to move and its ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How would early Homo sapiens and a humanoid marsupial interact? I was thinking about how there are some instances of convergent evolution between marsupials and placental mammals and was thinking about a parallel universe in which there is convergent evolution between marsupials and humans. In this universe a species of marsupial evolves at about the same time a... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could a life form evolve a biological type of quantum computer? I was thinking of a lifeforms that would have a brain more similar to that of a quantum computer than an ordinary brain. I was thinking the brain would use something similar to qubits that could be in superpositions of states instead of or in addition to braincells. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Would it be possible for there to be a life form that has a time symmetric life cycle? All known life forms have life cycles that are not time symmetric as they look different when time is reversed. I was wondering if there could be a life form that would have a life cycle that would look the same with time reversed? Could such a life form develop intelligence? (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could a species evolve a biological gravitational wave detector? With technology it is possible to detect Gravitational waves as Gravitational waves have been detected by LIGO. Could a species evolve to have a sense organ for detecting Gravitational waves? What types of conditions could cause a species to evolve to detect gravitational waves? How big would a bi... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could a creature evolve to have a biological Geiger Counter? I was thinking of a situation in which a creature lives in a region in which the levels of radioactivity varies from harmless to lethal from place to place and time to time. It takes millions of years for the radioactivity of this place to become unpredictable so that creatures can adapt to it over ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could a life form evolve a biological video screen as a way of communicating? I was thinking of a situation in which a life form evolves a biological screen somewhere on its body that can play videos. The life form would play videos on its biological video screen in order to share ideas and memories with other members of its species. The videos that the life form could play ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could a planet have an atmosphere that is composed mostly of Diborane, Nitrogen, and Ammonia Vapor? Because Boron is directly to the left of Carbon and Nitrogen is directly to the right of Carbon on the Periodic Table Boron-Nitride has the same types of bonds and so as carbon and so in combination with other elements it can form Molecules with the same shape as carbon atoms. Because Boron-Nitride ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Would it be possible for a single celled organism to evolve intelligence? I understand that the human brain consists of many cells working together but could a single celled life form evolve something like a brain with similar intelligence to the human brain? I was thinking of a situation in which a planet has a highly advanced civilization of single celled organisms. (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could an organism evolve to move faster than the speed of sound without technology? I know in fiction Sonic The Hedgehog is able to run faster than the speed of sound but could an organism actually evolve to move faster than the speed of sound? What type of fuel would such an organism need to move faster than the speed of sound? What form of locomotion would such an organism use? ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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How would a universe in which death is impossible work? In a parallel universe, death is physically impossible so nothing can ever die but this universe has lots of life. It is also physically impossible for any life form in this hypothetical universe to be harmed or feel pain. In this hypothetical universe, death, pain, and harm being impossible is as fu... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Would it be possible for a population of snakes to survive by eating nothing but fruit? I was thinking of a scenario in which a population of snakes gets stranded on an island in which they are literally the only animals. This hypothetical island does not even have insects for the snakes to eat. The island does have dense forests of trees that produce fruit. All the fish and marine l... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Wormhole inside a human brain? Would it be possible to produce a pair of human brains that are connected by a wormhole that has each end inside one of the brains? What I had in mind is that the wormhole would have neurons inside it so that nerve signals could travel through the wormhole to keep the brains connected. Each brain w... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Could a universe with something like special relativity based on position instead of velocity be logically consistent? In a parallel universe if two objects occupy different positions in space then in the reference frame of each object the other has length contraction and time dilation. If the two objects are very close to each other then the amount of length contraction and time dilation is negligible but if two ob... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Could a universe with a reverse of the uncertainty principle be self consistent? In a parallel universe the uncertainty in position and the uncertainty in momentum are directly related to each other. What kinds of effects would this have on the quantum mechanics of this universe? Could this type of parallel universe have life or any complex structures? (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Would it be possible for an organism to evolve a biological fusion reactor? I was thinking of an organism that has evolved to get its energy through nuclear fusion. It has its own fusion rector inside its body that is capable of fusing hydrogen to helium to derive energy. It is not only capable of deriving energy from fusion but if there is not enough of the elements that ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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What if the Planck constant was exactly zero? I was thinking of a parallel universe in which the Planck constant has an exact value of zero. How would this effect the physics of that universe and how would it effect the development of that universe? (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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What would produce tetration in physics? In a parallel universe much of the physics equation have tetration in them. There are things such as tetrational growth as well as tetrational decay. $x^x$ and $x^{x^x}$ are also found in some physics equations. Super logs and super roots are also necessary for understanding some of the physics of ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Could a universe with a reverse of the relativity of our universe be self consistent? In our universe if there are two objects that are moving relative to each other then each will see the other's length contracted in the direction of motion and it will see the others clocks running slower than its own clocks. What if in a parallel universe the effect was reversed so that if there we... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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In three spatial dimensions, would it be possible to have a force that decreases with the inverse of the distance? I know that in our universe, electromagnetism and gravity decrease with the inverse of the distance squared. Would it be possible though for there to be a force in another universe with three spatial dimensions that decreases with the inverse of the distance instead of with the distance? If so, could... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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If electromagnetic waves didn't follow an inverse square law? I was thinking of a hypothetical universe in which electromagnetic waves decrease in intensity with the distance instead of the square of the distance. What kinds of effects would that have on that universe and how would electromagnetism need to be different for this to be the case? (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Breeding two species to become genetically more similar? I was thinking of a scenario in which people decide to use breeding to try to make two species more genetically related to each other. The people take genetic samples of each individual from their breeding populations and compare its DNA to the DNA of the other species. The individuals that are mos... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Could a force with these properties exist in a parallel universe? In an alternate universe there is a force known as the emotion force although the force has nothing to do with emotions. Anything that interacts through the emotion force has an emotion charge that is either positive or negative. Emotion charge is entirely independent of electric charge. Like emot... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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What if gauss's law was different? Gauss's Law states that the electric field enclosed by a sphere, or any other surface is the same as the charge divided by the electric constant. What if in another universe Gauss's law was, "The Electric Flux enclosed by a sphere is equal to the charge multiplied by Radius of the sphere divided by ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Is this an intelligent life form? An alien life form is found that has a pattern of stripes on its back. The pattern is black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, black, and so on. It is found that for each series of different colored stripes the red is on average twice as large as the black, the yellow is on average three... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Chemistry in two spatial dimensions? I know that someone has asked how chemistry would be in four dimensions but I was wondering what would chemistry be like in two dimensions? From what I understand, in two dimensions, particles, instead of being either fermions or bosons, would be anyons. Anyons can only exist in two spatial dimension... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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One way Isolation There is a place that has a natural boundary that allows all animals and plants to enter that place but any animal that can't fly is unable to leave that place. This place is large enough to have a human civilization and it does have a civilization. The people living both at this place and outside ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |