• shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Don’t care how smart you are, you ain’t shit without metallurgy followed by electricity. No metallurgy, no electricity, no tech.

    Ever read a science fiction novel where the aliens evolved underwater? The author has to twist the story in knots to try and explain how they gained anything advanced without fire.

    • thevoidzero@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      29 minutes ago

      I’m not an author, I’m a scientist. So I don’t know what the through process of authors are. But I it probably would take long time to actually find alternative ways to do the things same as us but underwater. The civilization won’t be like us, they would not have same technology, they wouldn’t have same values. Authors are probably trying to capture general population’s interests by making things they understand.

      And do you think “hey I haven’t heard anyone say something to me about earth rotating sun” would have been a good counter argument in the past.

      Water is incredible, we don’t know all the ways we can use it. Sometimes it takes hours to simulate what water does in seconds. Unlike other materials like metals, which are lot easier to predict. And if we’re talking about aliens, don’t even have to think water, it could be something else as flexible as water, while having properties that makes it easier to use.

    • gens@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      12 hours ago

      It can be cristals and photons. Carbon is the basis of life because it’s good for looooong molecules. But it’s not like it’s the only option. It may not even be the best option on planets with different temperatures or pressures.

      Anyway life may not even need food or care about the passage of time.

      • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 hours ago

        It can be crystals and photons.

        How do you build actuators that react to light without electricity?

        • thevoidzero@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          36 minutes ago

          Does your glasses need electricity to function? Before electronics came and we started making everything need electricity do you think we were not advanced civilization because we only used mechanical power? If you had come that far and suppose had limitations like “can’t use electricity coz I said so”, the development would have stopped? They would have found other ways.