Activity for dsollen‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	If humans were transplanted to a different Earth-like world that they didn't evolve on, how would they deduce how they came about? I have a world where prehistoric humans were kidnapped and transported to another world. This other world is Earth-like, with mammals (also transported from Earth then later diversifying into other species), as well as some species that evolved on the planet itself. Apes were never transported to t... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	What effect would it have on the human psyche to be able to observe, but not interact, with other humans for an extended length of time? I had an idea for a character that was stuck in a ghost-like state for a length of time after an accident. During this time, they would have very limited ability to interact with the rest of the world: no one could see or hear them, but they could observe everything happening around them. They woul... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Is there a reason that females passing on more than 1/2 of their genetics to the child would be unlikely to evolve? On the earth today most animals use a two sex mating system where male and female provide the same amount of genetics to the resulting offspring, despite the fact that in many cases the female provides a disproportionately high degree of resources in producing and raising the young than the 'free-loa... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	In a 'Zootopia' situation who's in power, the Elephant or the Mouse? Imagine a situation kind of like Zootopia with many different creatures all living in one environment, some significantly larger than others. These species aren't necessarily furries like in Zootopia, but you still have size difference such as an elephant vs. a mouse where one species is a hundred t... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Death from old age has stopped, but fertility window is the same. What is the new population equlibrium? I'm imagining a near-future world where a process can be undergone that will halt all future aging of the body, but the approach causes infertility. Those undergoing it will not have (biological) children afterwards. This means that the long life does not lead to exponential growth in population, a... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Why would a male marsiupial agree to accept responsibility for carrying half of his mate's joeys? I'm looking to create a species of marsupial that is heavily K select, which is to say they put significant effort into raising their young after birth (both of them :P ) in which both the male and female carry joeys. My general idea is that the female would get pregnant with more children then she ... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Question	—	Evolution of communication system for dispersed pack to orginize their kill without other predators being drawn to the scene by the calls? This is a follow up to the creature 'griffins' I sort of created here: Anatomically Correct Griffins The idea of the final griffin was a small tree based species that will leap down on much larger prey and kill it quickly with attack to jugular. Hunting is very dangerous because griffins are frail ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Evolution of a tree-based predator that threatens to kill/eat prey unless prey feeds it? This is a very closely related question to my previous: Evolution of tree-dwelling species that will help predators find prey if prey species doesn't give it a bribe? The premise is the same, a tree-based creature that blackmails a species on the ground into feeding it, in fact there is a good chan... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Evolution of tree-dwelling species that will help predators find prey if prey species doesn't give it a bribe? I had a rough idea of a species that has a tendency to blackmail other species into feeding it. The concept was a tree-dwelling species, a larger one that has few predators among the trees to worry about, that will harass a stronger land-based species into feeding it by threatening to help a predato... (more)	—	almost 8 years ago
Question	—	How to justify evolution of a sapient hermaphrodite species I'm looking for a very grounded evolutionary justification for the existence of a hermaphroditic sapient and social species, preferably roughly mammalian but not mandatory, which is not as easy as it would appear to justify. In the real word most hermaphrodite species are simple species, and most liv... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Question	—	How to ensure repayment of investment from space colonies in an information economy? Imagine a world in which earth has started to colonize other worlds slowly, though the expense to send ships to other worlds is extremely high, and without FTL drive it takes some times to create a self sustaining colony. To support the building of these colonies governments have looked to the suppo... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	How long would it take to artificially breed sapience into apes? Lets say that, for some reason, humans decide to breed true sapience into one of the great apes (chimps or bonobos). They start to use active selective breeding to encourage increased intellect and sapience in these species. How long would it take for sapience to be achieved via such a solution? (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	Methods to ensure gene flow in species with seperate sapient and non-sapient lifecycle I'm retouching the idea discussed in detail here Evolution of species with seperate sapient and non-sapient forms?. I like the discussion had there, but want to focus in on one specific question, the biggest difficulty of the question. Context and some ideas already come up with can be found there.... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	How similar to earth could a planet which experiences a permanent day be? I want to play with the idea of a sapient species evolving on a world where at least part of the world experiences a permanent day. The obvious way to doing this would be where part of the world faces the sun always and part of the world phases away, though I'm not limited to that approach so long a... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Work and life schedules in human made enviroment without a sun to drive day night schedule? Currently your work and life schedules fall mostly into 'day' and 'night', with a few areas breaking up work times into 3 part shifts, morning, evening night etc. Imagine we live in an artificial enviroment, most likely a space station or world ship, which does not have a sun and light comes from el... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Can a sapient species evolve that needs little or no sleep? Humans sleep more then nearly any other creature (true sleep, not low-activity like cats and sloths), and are some of the only true sapient species on earth. Many other intelligent, or nearly sapient, species similarly have much higher degrees of sleep. Clearly we find sleep to be useful. Of cours... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Modern technology during WW2, can it be powered safely? Imagine someone from the modern day somehow gets transported back in time around the same time of WW2 without warning ahead of time. He has with him a laptop, graphing calculator (and a hand full of backup batteries), a smart phone, and a digital watch. He wants to show of and use his technology, h... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Adult's mind in a child's body, how will it think differently? Let's say I have a character whose body stopped aging at say 7 years old, prepubescent; just say a wizard did it. The individual is now into their 20s, but their body never ages and, in particular, they never go through puberty. What sort of effects will it have on the mind to never go through this... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Viability of using randomly generated electronic radiation to mask the disposition of a fleet from passive scanners with electronic 'white noise'? Lets say I have a space fleet flying to attack an installation. The enemy knows I'm coming but not my numbers or exact disposition. Since I'm moving much slower then C the light from my fleet will race ahead of me and they will be able to see me coming, and my disposition and numbers, well in advan... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	How long does it take for disease to evolve from healthy isolated colony? Lets say you have a small group of space colonists. They were screened for sickness, viral and bacterial, as thoroughly as we knew how before being sent off to the colony and all were found healthy. They traveled for years in a fully sanitized ship before reaching their new colony, which is isolate... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Political and social rammifcations of govenor killing most citizens to save the remaining few (second draft) Follow up to this question: How would earth goverments respond to killing of most of a colony to keep the rest alive long enough for rescue but with a different approach. The same scenario occurs. The first colony to mars suffers a disaster. To clarify points form last time this is an early colony... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Would spacefaring aliens have to be roughly as intelligent as humans? The idea is simple, our intellegence is so far above a chimp or bonobo as to make us something different. There are things we can do intuitively that no Bonobo or chimp will be able to, and because of this most of our technology is beyond them. They can be taught to use a specific piece in a specif... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Method to share genetics beyond traditional sexual reproduction It seems that my ability to create interesting creatures is limited by the need for sexual reproduction, which is absurdly useful, but also rather limiting, method of sharing genetics. I acknowledge that any sapient species will almost certainly have some means of swapping genetics, but that does no... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How would society respond to a humanzee? The humanzee is the theoretical hybrid of human and another primate. No such humanzee has ever been documented in the modern era, though genetics suggest in our distant evolutionary past primitive not-yet-humans ancestors have mated with chimps and humans mated with neanderthals in the past. In fac... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is another animal used as an artifical surrogate for humans possible? This question asks about traditional artificial wombs viability (Is an artificial womb feasible?). I was wondering if we could take an alternative route by using a biological womb instead. Is it possible that we could utilize animals as surrogate wombs for humans? I know that currently we have fou... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How would aquatic sapience evolve? Imagine a world much like ours, except our ape ancestors decided they liked the trees and never climbed down and decided to try out these 'tool' things. sapient apes never evolved. Instead a predominately aquatic race evolved (race with limited ability to go on land, such as just long enough to lay... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How could an multi-world economy exist if FTL communication, but not travel, existed? Imagine that we one day invent an ansible, capable of near-instantaneous FTL communication, but we can not transport physical matter any faster than light. Imagine also that we have gotten to the point where space travel is possible, but still massively expensive and obviously slow. We want to colo... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Would a modern culture in which parents can decide the sex of the child have an even number of each sex? Imagine a species that evolved almost identical to our own, except for one difference. A child's sex is not decided by the presence of a Y chromosome, and all embryos have the potential to evolve into either sex. The mother can decide the sex of the child she carries through regulation of hormones ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How would gender roles be affected by a society where parents could control the sex of their child Imagine a species almost identical to humans, with one exception. All sperm contained both X and Y chromosome, and every child has the potential to develop as either sex. However, the mother has some form of control to select the sex of the child during early development, say through controlling ra... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Species evolved that encourages mutation of some of its embryos I've been inspired to ask this question based off of my answer, and the resulting discussion, to this question: Why would a species of intelligent parthenogenetics invent males? However, this is actually something that I had contemplated many years ago. A species I had thought was an interesting id... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you find a mate when everyone looks amazing? personality, and intellect, to name a few important criteria. Physical appearance is only one of many factors we use when choosing a mate, and arguably in the modern era it is less important to the overall fitness of our children then other criteria; evolution just hasn't gotten around to 'catching ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Species evolved to use a wheel-like object This question is intended as a follow up to this one: Naturally occurring wheels - do the 'mech' vs. 'tank' comparison apply to organics? I agree with the arguments against wheels evolving in place of hoofs/feet in the answer, however, I was wondering if there was a way to make a creature that uses ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is non-manmade pandemic a realistic threat to modern first world? Inspired by this question, and my own answer to it: Avoiding galactic pandemics. World ending pandemics are a common disaster/after-the-end story trope, I'm trying to determine if plausible, and how one could occur. What is the threat of a pandemic occurring in a modern first world nation, and if o... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Death from old age stopped, with expansion to new worlds to handle population growth One of the biggest 'immortality sucks' issues has always been the question of what to do with the new people being born. Without death, a world's limited resources can't keep up with a never ending increase in population. Imagine a sci-fi future world where we developed some means of stopping old a... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Low-tech inertial dampener options As mentioned in this discussion: How to keep humans pilots instead of AI in sci-fi future? the ability to handle G forces is a limiting factor on what pilots can do. Some of my solutions to address this will likely be to limit the delta V via various approaches, but I'm also looking into what I can ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How to keep humans pilots instead of AI in sci-fi future? I'm trying to write a 'gundam like' series, though with space fighters instead of humanoid robots. I want a semi-hard science world, I'm okay with making up technology without fully explaining how it works so long as it seems plausible, but I want to be as realistic as possible within my world and t... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Will this approach work for a time traveler to recreate penicillin? This question is closely related to, but more specific, than the question/comment that inspired it: Could a modern times time traveler produce an antibiotic in medieval times?. Imagine a person is sent back in time to roughly middle-ages or slightly after, without warning to prepare for it. He has ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Can a human fighter pilot fully grasp 3 dimensional frictionless movement in space? My answer to this question essentially came down to the pilot being in a sphere with anything large jutting out of it. Some of the arguments made against me I feel are true if we assume fights like traditional jet planes, but not if a space fighter was designed to make optimal use of 3D space without... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Question	—	Evolution of species with separate sapient and non-sapient forms? This question is inspired by the last paragraph of my answer here: Negating the negative effects of childbearing (A follow up question to this can be found here: Methods to ensure gene flow in species with seperate sapient and non-sapient lifecycle) I mentioned a concept for a species which I think... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Question	—	What would a near-human level AI still struggle at? Plenty of stories have done AI's before, but many of them feel unrealistic. If you make an AI that is as smart as humans, but with faster reaction speed and ability to process and calculate certain concepts at speeds immensely greater then humans it makes humans rather pointless. The question I'm a... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Question	—	What issues as a result of square-cube law would a human scaled to the size of an ant face? Stories with shrinking never seen to take into account the Square-Cube law. I'm trying to consider what it would take to do a story like this that actually fully addresses the square cube law. I know most of the advantages humans would gain, such as: 1) being proportionally stronger, able to lift ... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago