Category Archives: Biology

Detecting the Human Ability to Morph

Twins have always held a certain fascination to human kind. Now they may hold the key to determining whether or not human beings have the ability to morph or effect their appearance biologically from within.

Twins Grow Apart Over Time

The study of facial differences between identical twins raised apart by adopted parents could hold the first clue. Identical twins are never exactly identical. There are minute differences that arise in their faces over time. For example, the average variation in distance between the two eyes could be + or – 1.3 millimeters between twins raised in the same family. The average variation of other facial features could be quantified as well. First, quantify those variations between twins raised in the same family. Then do the same for twins raised apart.

What if the twins raised apart have different average variations? Would it then be possible to compare the facial variations with the facial features of the parents who raised each twin? Could we find that humans morph slightly to look like the people who raised them? This would certainly be an evolutionary advantage. We tend to treat people who look like us, a little better.

Identical Twins Morphing to Match Different Environments

Born Identical Twins Morphing to Match Different Households?

In the future we could see parents adopt and adapt their kids by cranking up that inherent morphing ability somehow.

Follow me on Twitter
https://twitter.com/HumbleFuturist

Are We a Viral Equivalent on the Universal Stage?

48 Replies

The universe is immense in the extreme. Objects like stars can become so large that it’s almost impossible to comprehend their scale. This video explains it quite well.

When comparing the scale at which we live and that of astronomical bodies like stars we can’t help but feel that we may be small cogs in something much, much more vast. Could that vast something be a life form so massive, and therefore foreign to us, that we fail to recognize it as alive? If we look in the other direction on the scale, toward the very small, it may help us to begin the process of investigating this notion.

A virus is considered to be one of the smallest units of life or psuedo-life.

According to Wikipedia: A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms [or hosts].

When observing humans from a star’s perspective, an interesting spin to the above definition comes to mind: A human is a small creature with an ever-expanding civilization that replicates only inside the living atmospheres of other astronomical bodies [or hosts].

Human beings and viruses are very different from one another. If a virus was able to think and understand it’s own properties, it would hardly imagine it possible that life forms billions of times larger than itself could exist. Questions like; “How could such a being support itself structurally? Or transmit information within itself? Or have a metabolism?” might be at the top of this thinking virus’s list. And their would be other questions it could not conceive to ask because of the limitations to it’s perspective. It’s possible we have similar limitations when it comes to the universe… at least for now.

Follow me on Twitter
https://twitter.com/HumbleFuturist

A Thinking Earth Brain

21 Replies

Our brains use electrical impulses to create thought and awareness. “Neurons generate electrical signals that travel along their axons. When a pulse of electricity reaches a junction called a synapse, it causes a neurotransmitter chemical to be released, which binds to receptors on other cells and thereby alters their electrical activity.” – From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain

Organic Brain uses Electricity

What if organic brains are a relatively new player in the use of electricity/energy to create thought? Lightning is electricity. There are approximately 30-100 lightning strikes on the earth per second. That comes out to millions of strikes every day.

Lightning Strikes 30-100 times per second

In addition to lightning discharges, there are lesser known discharges called Sprites. “Sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.” –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_%28lightning%29

Earth’s Cerebral Cortex…maybe

Furthermore, there is an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth and permeates everything on it.

Electromagnetic Brain, Scaffolding, Grey Matter?

Over the course of thousands or millions of years, the number of lightning discharges approaches the number of electrical signals generated in a living brain. Could the earth-brain be working at a slower rate than ours? In other words, operating over a longer time span. Would this earth-brain necessarily contain only one consciousness? Or even consciousness at all?

A thinking organism need not have an immediate or timely way of physically manifesting it’s will. Or maybe it does not need to manifest it’s will at all. We tend to think that intelligence evolves only when Darwinian, survival of the fittest scenarios force it to. Maybe intelligence can emerge from a series of complex natural processes.

Imagine this series of events. A “slow” working planetary brain emerges. The resulting environment within this planetary brain allows for a faster organic brain to evolve. The life forms with the organic brains invent faster computer brains. We, our brains, our intelligence could be one rung on a ladder of intelligences.

Follow me on Twitter
https://twitter.com/HumbleFuturist

A New Genetic Memory for Our Species

19 Replies

Human babies are born with the innate ability to mimic the facial expressions of the people around them. Experiments were conducted with new born infants where the mother waved her tongue and the infant was able to duplicate the action.

The ability to mimic a facial expression is an example of a genetic memory with which we are born. In short, stuff we are born knowing how to do. If the knowledge of how to mimic facial expressions can be genetically imprinted in our brains, why not calculus or String Theory or The Constitution?

Our species has gone through eras where society, culture and/or knowledge have been lost in large catastrophes. Subsequently we had to start from scratch every time. What if people were simply born with all the knowledge they needed to live in our society? It would certainly safe guard our species from the next culture erasing catastrophe.

On a lighter note, perhaps people could be born with the latest and greatest education in ALL fields. Each human being an expert at Math, Engineering, The Humanities, Languages, Philosophy, you name it. This knowledge would become as basic to our species as the ability to regulate heart rate or breathing.

Follow me on Twitter
https://twitter.com/HumbleFuturist

Planetary Life Forms Around a Neutron Star (Pulsar)

18 Replies

Many astronomers and scientists currently believe life would be impossible around a pulsar. A pulsar would bathe the surface of a planet in massive amounts of radiation constantly, like clockwork. Like a heart beat. Watch the video below.

I don’t think we should assume all life in the universe is made of the same “fragile” components as we are. And it’s possible that life does not have to be self contained. A pulsar could serve the function of a “heart” to silicon based life forms on the surface. It could distribute nutrients (energy) deep into an organism. Especially if that organism was semi transparent to the radiation. Pulsars are constant and regular for millions of years. The energy they produce could easily be relied upon by organisms over the course of an evolutionary period.

If this concept sounds strange to you, think about how much we rely on our sun. If the sun were to stop shining, plants would die, the food chain would be in shambles and we would most likely perish from starvation. If we did not freeze to death first. We too have an unbreakable umbilical cord to our star. At least for the time being.