262 votes
Accepted

How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?

Fran is a naturally subterranean boring worm-like creature. Her cilia enable her to move forward and rotate. On her homeworld, the tunnels are bored with ridges or grooves that serve as affordances ...
Thriggle's user avatar
  • 2,567
90 votes

How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?

There are a few languages on earth that don't have words for relative direction. Instead of they use absolute the directions North, South, East, and West to describe the positioning of things. For ...
sphennings's user avatar
  • 21.4k
70 votes

Non-visual Computers - thoughts?

Youngsters. The first computers read and wrote punched cards or punched paper tape; they did not have any kind of user interface where being blind or sighted mattered. It was perceived as major ...
AlexP's user avatar
  • 88.7k
51 votes

Alice has been shrunk! Will she notice?

Alice is an avid user of World-Builder. While the average person might not notice ... The bed materials would be courser and stiffer than usual. She will feel colder, especially in her extremities. ...
Gary Walker's user avatar
  • 22.4k
48 votes
Accepted

How would humans adapt to suddenly gaining new senses?

Some psychology studies have already been performed that suggest the human brain is plastic enough that this isn't much of a problem. One experimenter wore a belt around his waist, a portion of which ...
John O's user avatar
  • 12.1k
42 votes
Accepted

Is there other way to perceive depth beside relying on parallax?

The following 3 come to mind: Context Clues: The creature interprets the image and approximates the shape and dimensions of its environment based on lived experience, and knowledge regarding the ...
Shawn O'Neil's user avatar
  • 2,183
41 votes

How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?

How about the rationality of object persistence? She doesn't have to know left from right; she knows the lemonade stand exists and will continue to exist if it is out of her sight. Infants know this ...
Amadeus's user avatar
  • 34.7k
29 votes

How can we create psychedelic experiences for healthy people without drugs?

There are some states of consciousness which can be reached by following given procedures which seems to resemble the states induced by consuming psychoactive drugs. Deep meditation is one of them; ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 285k
28 votes
Accepted

Alice has been shrunk! Will she notice?

No Standard Bayesian analysis of the situation will suggest that Bob, rather than somehow violently breaking the vast majority of the laws of physics, has instead decide to play a practical joke by ...
Halfthawed's user avatar
  • 40.5k
27 votes
Accepted

What kind of weapon would be most useful for a fantasy civilization of blind creatures?

Eyes. https://www.dinglefalconry.com/ When fighting in the open and the light, your blind creatures cooperate with creatures that can see and communicate. We use dogs in this way - putting to use ...
Willk's user avatar
  • 305k
27 votes
Accepted

How would an entity automatically know when someone is directly observing it?

As described? There's nothing I can think of that fits the bill. The reason why humans know they're being watched: they don't. So what's this 'I feel like someone's watching' thing we have? Other ...
Alexandra Williams's user avatar
23 votes

What does human vapor smell like?

The closest reference I can find is to burning bodies. Accounts from those having experienced the smell of burning bodies in concentration camps says its unmistakable and sweet. I have also found this ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 285k
23 votes

Could an animal evolve to smell by throwing scents into the environment and waiting for them to get reflected back?

This is comparing apples to oranges. Smells do not reflect off of surfaces. Sight and hearing measure waves. Smells don't come in waves. Even so, imagine that a creature would throw a stream of ...
The Square-Cube Law's user avatar
22 votes
Accepted

What are alternative particles to photons that would allow vision?

If it quacks like a duck... Have you heard of The Duck Test, or so called Duck Typing? The Duck Test is a type of abductive reasoning, and it works like this: If it looks like a duck, swims like ...
MichaelK's user avatar
  • 43.7k
20 votes
Accepted

Convergent Eye Structure in Aliens?

Yes. Squids and humans make a good example here...actually there are a huge number of creatures that arrived at the same eye despite diverging long ago. https://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-...
Twelfth's user avatar
  • 24.3k
20 votes

What does human vapor smell like?

Instantly vaporizing a whole person with a laser is a tremendously energetic event. The heat from said event would cause a thermal explosion that would kick up all the material within a significant ...
Nosajimiki's user avatar
  • 91.9k
19 votes

How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?

I suggest rings. As I understand, you want a solution that does not depend on the anatomy of the creature. Although I am taking some assumptions that I hope you find reasonable: They are land ...
Theraot's user avatar
  • 6,380
19 votes

Alice has been shrunk! Will she notice?

Will Alice figure out what has really happened before she sees Bob? Gravity says she could, but she still won't work it out. Stuff takes time to fall. We are adjusted by the experience of our ...
StephenG - Help Ukraine's user avatar
19 votes

What kind of weapon would be most useful for a fantasy civilization of blind creatures?

Blind creatures are gonna be at a massive disadvantage in a fight in the open in light. There's a reason that light is the main sense we use on the surface. It's very easy to follow, very direct, and ...
Nepene Nep's user avatar
  • 38.5k
18 votes

How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?

Turn towards the thing you want. If you don't see it, keep turning, you'll see it eventually. Now, it's in front of you. No problem. Walk forward. A species like this would constantly be orienting ...
Erin Thursby's user avatar
  • 32.1k
18 votes

Is there other way to perceive depth beside relying on parallax?

You can estimate depths using time of flight technique. There are tools which measure distances using a single photosensor: they shine a laser on an object and by measuring the time to get the signal ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 285k
17 votes

How would an entity automatically know when someone is directly observing it?

Emission theory is true There is an ancient theory called Emission theory, which (attempts to) explain vision by asserting that humans and other animals fire invisible eye beams out of their eyes. As ...
BambooleanLogic's user avatar
16 votes
Accepted

Will privacy disappear if our sense of smell was strong like that of a bear?

I remember a story about aliens that had such a sense of smell, and the society was well developed with that in mind. Holding hands was intimate, as everyone would know you were touching. One plot ...
JDługosz's user avatar
  • 69.4k
16 votes
Accepted

How bright were medieval cities at night, seen from the sky?

Three factors enter into how well you can see a medieval city from the air at night. First, outdoor lighting is almost exclusively torches and oil/fat lamps (depending on the situation). These aren'...
Zeiss Ikon's user avatar
  • 45.9k
16 votes

Is there other way to perceive depth beside relying on parallax?

They bob their head slightly as they walk. You do not need two eyes to perceive depth - you can have one eye move over time with an inertial sensor like we have in our inner ear and the brain can ...
Ash's user avatar
  • 44.2k
16 votes

What would this combination lubricant/cleaning solution smell like and taste like?

It would smell like chlorine Of the three substances, bleach is the one with the strongest and most distinctive smell, and it would easily overpower the relatively delicate smell of ethanol and the ...
Ottie's user avatar
  • 5,758
16 votes
Accepted

Can an animal have a body covered with "hearing" hair?

Flies and other invertebrates posses already this capability: the little hairs they have on their bodies allow them to perceive pressure waves and react to them. Trichobothria (singular ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 285k
15 votes

Could an organism see in infrared light as well as normal light, using its brain to process what it sees into a single image?

Why would receptors reacting to infrared be any different than those reacting to other wavelengths? Some humans are color-blind. They lack one or more types of cones, meaning they don't perceive that ...
pluckedkiwi's user avatar
  • 4,746
15 votes

What kind of weapon would be most useful for a fantasy civilization of blind creatures?

Tucker's Kobolds: Rather than have blind folks trying to slug it out with sighted opponents, I would suggest that your people are experts at ambushes, poisons, booby traps, and surprise. It will help ...
DWKraus's user avatar
  • 63.5k

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