Below I am forwarding an E-mail sent to me by my best friend (ALSO named
Brian). It's regarding a discussion I'm having with him regarding an alien
race for the fictional 'verse I'm working on. The inspiration arose from a
discussion on this board in which someone suggested the possibility AND
advantages of encountering an alien race who had an entirely different set of
biological requirements and colonization parameters than Humans.
Ideally, humans and these aliens could co-exist in a system, with us
colonizing Earth-like worlds, and them colonizing Venusian planets. Not
only could we peacefully co-exist, but we could also sell to each other
resources less available to ourselves (It's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy
Venusian mining products from aliens who can live there comfortably than to
adapt to Venus ourselves, and also very profitable to sell Earth products to
aliens who couldn't adapt well to Earth themselves.
Not being a scientist, I'm not sure about his xenobiology, particularly the
Mercury/blood thing, but I was hoping someone out there could give more
input.
In addition, on a technology note, due to the high atmopheric pressure on
there worlds, vac environments are more problematic for them. They'd probably
have to develop and rely more on shield technology, since structural strength
capable of maintaining a comfortable atmosphere for them AND not popping in
space might be a challenge.
Thanks in advance for the help,
Brian B2
"The Irish are the only race of people on Earth for which psychoanalysis is of
no use."
- S. Freud
> From: "FUCHS_001" <FUCHS_001@msn.com>
> design, then segmented the body to give flexibility. Ended up looking
> With their extremely dense atmosphere,going for it a stroll in a stiff
> predators.On a planet with a thick atmosphere, the extra lift could
Remains
> rigid in extremely high temperatures. Musculature is mostly steel
> Wood all be done with energy fields.
products(bodily
> excrement=pure, refined iron and steel ; respiratory waste=oxygen).
G'day,
> >Preliminary concept sketches of newfound allies...
Look pretty cool, he may want to get hold of an invertebrate biology text and
have a flick through some of the weirder phyla for further inspiration.
> Inverted-triangle cross-section provides stability in windy
Assuming they remain dorso-ventrally flattened and close to the ground
right?
> Flat dorsal surface provided ancestors with protection
Truish - assuming they don't get a wide enough grip to use the shape to
actually hook in (broad top and tapering sides so if can get across top then
shut hold then harder to dislodge). They'd have to watch out for burrowing
preds though (which I'd expect more of in dense atmospheres as if underground
then free from wind effects etc)
> Metal-based biochemistry.
Sounds cool and Mercury blood isn't too weird.
> Exoskeleton...
This may well limit their size unless, for instance, they've come up with some
tricks for their equivalent of respiration that the arthropods on Earth have
missed.
> Possible biological ramifications to consider:
Like what?
> combined with the overwhelming difficulty of
You may be surprised how resilient some animals can be about this. While many
deep ocean animals do "pop" if brought to the surface, others can survive and
thrive at the surface as long as they're brought up slowly in the first place.
It may well be more a case of not being able to make fast transitions rather
than no transitions.
> Wood all be done with energy fields.
Not a bad idea though.
> 3)slow thinkers:
OK this one I don't understand... not saying its not just fine, just don't
understand the logic of it;)
Cheers
> From: Beth.Fulton@csiro.au
Sounds good, I'll pass this along to him.
> >> Inverted-triangle cross-section provides stability in windy
right.
> >> Flat dorsal surface provided ancestors with protection
> then
good point.
> >> Metal-based biochemistry.
cool.
> >> Exoskeleton...
I'm going to suggest to him more of an armor-plated endoskeletal
creature,
vis-a-vis toirtoises, armadillos, pangolins, & certain dinosaurs.
> >> Possible biological ramifications to consider:
Non-metallic building materials, for one.
> > combined with the overwhelming difficulty of
While
> many deep ocean animals do "pop" if brought to the surface, others can
The concern was more for their crafts' ability to make the transition than
the creatures. related to the spaceship/sub discussion, and the fact
that they'd have to hold in several more atmospheres than a human ship. While
overcomable, it might mean they have to develop better structural techniques,
as well as rely on heavy energy fields. And when one of their ships
decompresses, it will do it more spectacularly. Better
shileds/armor/hulls, direr consequences to hull breaches. Any
suggestions for game play?
> >> Wood all be done with energy fields.
As I said to Karl, less dense neural nets mean their thinking, while not
linear, is closer to linear than ours. Therefore, I'm thinking that they'd
have faster reaction times to situations they've trained for, but be a littlw
more deliberate and less able to improvise on the fly than humans.