Activity for _X_‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: What kind of world would drive brains to evolve high-throughput sensory? Automated sensory selectivity, i.e. not passing sensory data to the conscious mind, is the result of evolution. Certain sensory inputs have been deemed irrelevant and thus placed in a sort of second tier data, which is passed to the conscious mind only if you focus on it. Other answers have provided... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Ideal Time Period for a Global Pandemic During WWII there had been a global mobilisation of personnel. If medical checks and basic prophylactic standards had not been in place, any flu-like disease could have easily resulted in a global pandemic. During the slave trades, there have also been a massive human displacement across three conti... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Best place on an humanoid body to develop biological radio? If the body of reference is a human body, then you may want to use the spine and the arms as antennas. The vertebras will be coated in metal, as the answers to the linked questions suggested, as well as the bones of the arms. The presence of a significant part of the nervous system next to the ante... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it possible to create light emitting creatures using selective breeding? No. Not in the way you are suggesting, and not to the frequencies and power that you are dreaming of. However... you could go around your problem and have a symbiotic relationship with some light emitting animal (e.g. a firefly), or bioluminescent fungus, or bacterium (as in the case of a certain s... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Botanical Barricades Your trees have been selected by evolution such that their aerial roots anchor themselves in the ground, but would rot and decay if the ground has a high content of water. Borrowing from L.Dutch's intuition about the wind, the actual problem is not bringing the nutrients, but rather avoiding excessiv... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Practical (and Impractical) Clothing Styles For Microgravity In our world, four important factors have determined the look of our clothes since the dawn of time: available resources, climate, purpose and moral. In my opinion, microgravity is simply going to add one degree of freedom to the clothing designers, but it is not going to decide whether clothes will ... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How plausible is a civilization, or life, that perceives time in reverse? The aliens are machines. They reached a very singular singularity (pun unintended), in which they were able to precompute all that there was to precompute until the end of the universe. This is a massive task. The issue is that such a feat comes at a cost, and their hardware is slowly fading. Every ... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it possible to get permanently scarred by the sea? Depending on the story, these Y people could have the general look of drowned corpses at sea: bleached skin, slightly bleached hair, a general, incurable, swelling of the abdomen, circled eyes, cold to the touch, a watery gaze, an oily mucuous layer at the mouth. You could add random drooling as a re... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are some factors that would induce random, but temporary, bouts of unconciousness? Narcolepsy is a pathology that lists sudden events of muscle collapse, akin to fainting, or seizure attacks, among its symptoms. As far as we know today, it does not seem to be entirely due to external factors, although there may be triggering external cues. In some cases they have measured a dimini... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why can an elf never become overweight? Hyperthyroidism It is a pathological condition caused by over-activity of the thyroid gland. The symptoms include Weight loss, sometimes significant, may occur despite a good appetite. There is a number of known causes for this condition in humans, several of which are genetic. However, simple inf... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How would you make a planet have more lightning storms There are some places on Earth that have an unusually high frequency of lightnings. For instance, Venezuela. The explanation, in this case, consists in moisty air locked by mountain ridges, and then sent onto a cycle of heating and cooling, where charges are likely accumulated at the two ends of the ... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Terminology for 24 hour wake-sleep cycle on world with longer dark-light cycle? Possibly one would refer to the most common thing/action that happens during the 24h cycles. For instance, sleepies, from sleeping wakies, from waking up waits, from the fact that you need to wait for seven such cycles before a full day has passed. zeptees, from epta, or seven in Greek, and sieben... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it reasonable for electric generators to come before steam engines? Of course! Accumulators Accumulators are easier to produce. Volta's battery design could be complemented by a manual worker hot-swapping batteries to the electric engine, just in the same way in which a manual worker need to shovel coal inside the furnace for a steam engine to run. Alternators Th... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What sort of substance could a humanoid release to befuddle others around them? Nitrous oxide A.k.a. the laughing gas. It is a colorless, with an almost unnoticeable metallic taste. Some WB users may know it as a mild anesthetic, for instance in dentistry. Exposure to nitrous oxide causes short-term decreases in mental performance, audiovisual ability, and manual dexterity. ... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What would be an ideal breathable atmosphere for a planet so that fire couldn't start naturally? Sparkling Pele's hair Tiny tinfoil confetti! How about we keep the ability to start fires artificially, but make enough changes so that fires do not start naturally? There are two main causes that lead to natural fires: direct heat from the sun lightnings lava will-o-the-wisp We need to change... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What could be an event which would wipe out most life on Earth and cause massive changes to Earth's ecology, but which humans can survive in bunkers? To create a complete new biochemistry, we are going to make carbon-carbon bonds obsolete. Carbon-carbon bonds are the backbone of our carbon-based life. To make them obsolete, we will force life to resort to some other basic bonds. Radiation in the wavelength of 330-350 nm will be absorbed by carbon... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Fact-based fiction: Electric, no-fuel propulsion for autonomous space drone I'd suggest the simplest and cheapest of them all: gravity. Recall that gravity pull is zero only at infinite distances. For convenience of the story, the drone will always be under the gravity pull of some celestial object. The drone can design very elaborate gravity assisted maneuvers, planning f... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What deficiency would make my raiders the most desperate? Let me add two more options: Option 1: Progeria, or the "good" farnesol deficiency Real-world Progeria is a disease causing accelerated aging. Affected individuals typically live to their teens, perhaps early twenties. In the real world, known causes of the disease are genetic mutations causing a c... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can you design your own plants without a computer? Q: Can a genome be partially sequenced along with trial and error to develop plants that will survive in low pressure? No. The genome can be partially sequenced manually given enough reagents, time and manpower, and it is going to take a really really long time. Next you need to sequence the RNA, an... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Could astronauts find their bearings in the Universe after being transported 6 gigalightyears from Earth? As long as the astronaut has a map of the sky from Earth where stellar bodies are grouped by distance (like on onion peels), then geometry suggests that there must be at least one point, or more likely a ring in the alien sky that looks rather similar, if not identical to a ring of equal size from t... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why would two humanoid species be physically unable to touch each other? The two humanoid lifeforms are two mental states inhabiting the same bodies. The switch is triggered, for instance, by the day/night cycle, or it follows a seasonal pattern. All the planet is simultaneously in the same mental state, so that they can never touch a body in which the mind is in the "oth... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What kind of specialists would study ancient alien technology? ROBOTS! Why send a bunch of under-evolved meatbags to understand a machine, when you can send the most advanced machine available to understand its alien counterpart? If not, then two distinct teams the one aboard the reconnaissance vessel (you get it for free, given that they find the artifacts)... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Chemical weapon to kill a werewolf Safely stored in the cold caves under a glacier in the North pass, lie the dart tips made by a rod of white Phosphorus covered by a layer of Gallium, the latter in the shape of a harpoon tip. The gallium melts after penetrating the skin. Ensure that the shape is such that part of the Phosphorus wil... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What's the Optimum Shape for a Radially Symmetric Brain? You could imagine arranging the brain lobes like the segments of an orange. The spinal chord could depart from the center, with the brain lobes arranged vertically in the skull. There would need to be some rewiring of the eyes and the optical nerves. However, you could place the visual processing clo... (more)	—	about 7 years ago