Activity for ohwilleke‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	What Mid-Life Triggers Make Sense? A small minority (on the order of one in one million to one in ten million or so) of men and women in this world tend to suddenly manifest their supernatural heritage/psychic abilities/superpowers not when they first become adults, but instead, in their 30s (although not one specific age and with som... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Question	—	How Predictable Is The Development Of Immunity To A Disease? Diseases in nature tend to naturally become less virulent over time, in part, because the disease vector changes and in part because the host population develops immunity to it. How possible is it, in theory, to accurately predict the time period until immunity to the disease or its decreased virule... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	What Could Aliens Do To Devolve Humans With A Germ Line Virus? The Objective Lots of questions at this site consider how humans could be enhanced with genetic engineering. But, if you are an alien, you may have the opposite priorities. These aliens are civilized and have their own code of ecological ethics, so they don't want to exterminate humans (and would p... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	What Could Cause Humans To Fracture Into Many Multiple Species? There are thousands of species of spiders on Earth. Ditto insects. And, prehistorically, there have been times when there have been several, or even half a dozen species of hominins in existence on Earth at the same time. But, now, there appears to be only one species of genus Homo on Earth. What ci... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Question	—	Multiple Methods Of Reproduction There are many organisms that sometimes reproduce asexually and sometimes reproduce sexually (even snakes and sharks!). There are also a fair number of organism that reproduce sexually but have a sex ratio of offspring that is heavily influenced by environmental conditions (e.g. water temperature wi... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Would A Life Cycle Involving Horizontal Gene Transfer Be Viable? Horizontal gene transfer via retroviruses that change an organism's germ line DNA exist, even in humans, and account for a minority but not insignificant portion of the genomes of many, if not most, species on Earth. Would it be viable to have an organism in which horizontal gene transfer was a norm... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	What would an organ linking the nervous systems of two people look like? Image people with roughly the same brain and nervous system layout as a human as a first approximation using the same kinds of cells and chemicals, etc. But, these people have organs that can directly link one person's nervous system to another person's nervous system with a connection comparable in... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Would ultrasonic nasal communication work? (*De facto* telepathy.) Lots of animals, e.g. dogs, can hear sounds beyond the frequencies that humans can hear. Would it be realistic to have a basically humanoid species which had two sets of vocal cords - one similar to a human's and another that created high frequency sounds in the frequency range of a dog whistle in t... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	What Adaptation Would Make An Octopus Live Longer? An octopus is one of the most intelligent non-human species on Earth, can manipulate objects, and has lots of other interesting adaptations (e.g. the ability to change color). But, an average octopus has a life expectancy of less than five years. What evolutionary adaptations could cause the average... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	How would human anatomy differ if humans almost always had 2-4 children at a time? Imagine that the average number of children born per birth without any artificial intervention was three (i.e. triplets were the norm) and that 98% of pregnancies gave rise to 2 to 4 children, with a single child happening only 1% of the time and more than 4 children happening 1% of the time. This h... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Are genetically engineered dogs that snap and become disloyal plausible? I am imaging a world in which a minor plot device is that there is a strain of dogs that were genetically engineered so that they are even more loyal than ordinary dogs at first, but at some point in their lives, either due to a triggering event or just the passage of time, suddenly flip. Then they b... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	What Would Happen If A Bacterium Hijacked Human Gender Determination? In pillbugs, sex is determined by two chromosomes: Z and W. Individuals who inherit two Zs develop as males, while ZW individuals become female. But in some populations, these rules are overwritten by a microbe called Wolbachia. Wolbachia infects the cells of pillbugs and only passes do... (more)	—	almost 8 years ago
Question	—	Runaway Starship Ramps This question is partially a spinoff of some points that came up in another recent question at Worldbuilding about interstellar space travel. Runaway Truck Ramps I live in Colorado, and on the downward slopes of many of our high grade mountain roads are runaway truck ramps. The idea is that if you ... (more)	—	about 8 years ago