Feb 26, 2024 04:37
I'd suggest you look into hermaphrodites, as they (at least simultaneous hermaphrodites) seem to be exactly what you're looking for. You can absolutely hand-wave the difficulties of such an adaptation, but if you want realism.....well, there are very good reasons why the vast majority of animals on Earth do not do this, and you should make sure to do your research accordingly.
 
Jul 4, 2023 19:47
This is valid if the superpower is introduced recently/abruptly, like in the middle of a fight. If this is a power they've had for some time, however, it can be reliably presumed that their reflexes have since adjusted. The brain's reaction time and its reactions are not the same thing. If there used to be, say, a 300ms gap between moving from a neutral stance to a parry, it would now be 100ms, so the timing of having the arm start/stop moving would change, but that's a matter of training/practice. You'd have to think in terms of smaller motions, admittedly, so precision might be an issue.
 
Oct 13, 2020 18:02
If there are any women among the crew, you have one more problem to consider; what happens if someone gets pregnant? Let's face it, humans are humans; over a ten-year span in such conditions, sex is basically a given. Even if you pack a ten-year supply of contraceptives (every pound of weight matters in spaceflight, so that's not trivial), you still rely on the assumption that people will use them properly. Having the women be post-menopause might help, but the accompanying physical changes tend to take a toll on fitness, which you probably can't afford on a long-term spaceflight.
 
Aug 6, 2019 14:02
I'd recommend reconsidering your "hundreds of eggs" figure. Your basic premise there isn't automatically impossible, but "one or two dozen" would be a figure that could actually be achieved. It takes a lot of energy and nutrients to create eggs, and for a creature that size, my suspension of disbelief would fall flat on its face if its eggs were not at least the size of chicken eggs (and probably larger, although not necessarily ostrich-sized). Hundreds of eggs just won't be physically possible unless you take a year to lay them all, which probably isn't what you had in mind.
 
Apr 16, 2019 05:21
@GerardFalla I'm keying off the reference in the question to "those two flight muscles connect to the same wing" to rule out the four-winged case. As for the rest, I'm trying to write up an answer right now to point out such concerns.
Apr 16, 2019 05:21
@GerardFalla I think this question is asking for how well it would work if one essentially stuck two pterosaur bodies together (with just two wings, since they would be merged together to form supermassive wings) and used the combined musculature of those two bodies to flap the wings. But yes, this question is rather difficult to understand, so I'm not 100% certain of my interpretation. Although that link looks extremely promising as a resource, so I have to thank the OP for bringing that to my attention :)
 
Jul 31, 2018 18:10
@TKK That's entirely true, and there's even a question on WB.SE about air rifles. The accepted answer, here (disclosure: it's my answer), points out those benefits. But there's also some big downsides that kept them from ever becoming widespread. Battlefield weaponry needs to be robust, and the Girandoni had too many fragile parts to be reliable; one tiny hole in the air reservoir made it useless. Also, the technology of the time couldn't mass-produce parts with the necessary precision.
 
Feb 2, 2018 12:26
I can't answer this in full (a lack of any orbit itself being an absurd idea), but a lack of rotation would mean a tidally locked planet. If you're looking for a practical understanding of climatology for the sake of building a fictional world, perhaps my answer to this question will prove useful to you.
 
Oct 10, 2016 20:59
I suspect you're looking for something closer to socialism; I believe the essential idea is along the lines of "each person contributes what they can and takes what they need". If you want possible examples of how this might be done, look at the 1871 Paris Commune (before it was crushed by the military) or perhaps the Anarchists of the 1936 Spanish Civil War (before that was crushed by various forces); for details on the latter, look for George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia in which he describes his experiences in considerable detail.
 
Oct 5, 2016 15:57
Downvoter: leave a comment explaining how this could be improved, if you don't think it suitable. @EveryBitHelps, distortion depends on the center of the projection. Typically, the center is the equator (to simplify matters), but an arbitrary latitude line can be used if you are willing to calculate it. But for your question, unless the crater is as big as Asia (spanning at least 40 degree of latitude/longitude), I don't think distortion will be a meaningful problem. Still, if you're going to calculate this by hand, pick some easier projections to work with (equirectangular, for instance).