/sci/ - Science & Math

Convergent evolution. The reason the same shapes, behaviors, etc are seen over and over again is that only they work.

Why do only these shapes and behaviors work? Physics. The person in that post is on the trail, but they got lost on the way. Indeed, if gravity was any higher, getting something into orbit would be much harder. However, he never stopped to think that maybe it's unlikely for a world with higher gravity to develop life.

For the same reason we don't see giant insects, we'll see humans on other worlds. Actually, let's add an addendum to that; any life we meet will have gone through a 'humanoid' stage, just like humanity is part of a bloodline that included a fish stage.

One trend in the history of life on Earth is an increase in the size and complexity of the nervous system, quantified as Encephalization Quotient. That is to say, the biosphere has slowly developed a highly specialized selection of organisms that have more of their mass taken up by 'thinking tissue' then other animals.

We can imagine this trend continuing, until all or nearly all of it's mass would be taken up by the nervous system. Such a creature would need an artificial support structure, probably of the same origin as it's EQ.

Mechanical technology as well will improve. That is to say, allotropes such as graphene are an example of the superior material strength that advanced aliens would possess.

In summary, the only response that our 'heavy-worlder' origins are going to get us are frowns of pity and smiles of glee as the interstellar community realizes that we could be completely sterilized with enough neutron radiation or a big rock, since we're so stupid we still haven't assured our survival by infra and interstellar colonization.

>>6277949

If the above statement sounds absurd, take a look at your body; you're a colony of nanobots that contain the information necessary to make more of themselves, endlessly until their internal code becomes corrupted and the colony ceases to be able to maintain homeostasis.

Biology and our artifacts will merge, or rather our artifacts will gain the complexity and size of biology. At that point, we have nanotech.

I'm really just repeating what's been said decades before I was born. The snowball has already been falling down the mountain for years, and we're about to have an avalanche. This will simultaneously change the entire face of the mountain by exposing the rock, and bury countless people beneath the snow.

The implications of this are massive. Immortality. Super-powers (Go look up carbon nanotube muscles.) Unlimited wealth, as we dredge up the Earth to it's core, just like the cyanobacteria did two billion years ago. Death on the scale of the oxygen crisis. The evolution of and domination of Earth by new domains of life, which are built and function on a scale as larger then we are to microscopic life; brains and bodies the size of mountains, eyes the size of lakes.

How lucky we are to be live in this time, and a still more glorious dawn awaits. Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns. The rising of the milky way.

>>6138166

>Not to mention we can't physically build devices that will last 100,000 years
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms#Clonal_plant_colonies

It's possible to build a means of information storage with the level of sophistication necessary for macroscopic matter manipulation that'll last for tens of thousands of years. It's called DNA/RNA.

We know it's possible to keep a biosphere alive for billions of years, because if it wasn't we wouldn't be here.

Therefore, complex structures, capable of self-maintenance and reproduction over very long periods of time, are possible.

Therefore, it should be possible for humanity to construct such a structure.

evolution, 'the best idea ever'

>>2037101
It's all about evolution

/sci/, how did gender and sexually-reproducing organisms develop from asexually reproducing organisms?

pic kinda related, wish i could find it in english...

does anyone know of any place where i could read about fictional evolutions or fictional animals with interesting evolutions? Kind of like sci-fi for a biologist. Or even non-fictional evolutionary traits that are interesting.

To be honest, it's hard to find all these things, because most aren't named or tagged.

In a few days, I'll make another thread, and maybe post the folder or something.

Happy /sci/'ing everyone.

Happy /sci/'ing everyone.