What is the most interesting thing you can think of?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Whether it be a premise, an image, a story, a person, or an idea; what is the most interesting and unusual thing you can think of? I'm starting this thread because I'm trying to write a novel, build an RPG, and program a computer game with my friend and my mind feels blank.

[Dogmantra]

The fact that one day someone sat down and said to themselves
"you know, we really could do with county things, so we can tell how much of stuff we have"

Thousands of years later, enter modern science.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

The fact that one day someone sat down and said to themselves
"you know, we really could do with county things, so we can tell how much of stuff we have"

Thousands of years later, enter modern science.

That's decent, but I've come up with better.

EXAMPLE: A guy looks at the utters of a cow and says "I think I'll drink what comes out of those tings when I squeeze them.".

[nerd-7i+42e]

The fact that no one realizes that water falling from the sky is a sign of the apocalypse. Or that it's time to cut back on the drugs, whichever is applicable.

[Science Officer]

He is... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18VkI0uDxE)

But really, the idea right now that has most captured my interest is this (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html).

[BiblioRook]

That's decent, but I've come up with better.

EXAMPLE: A guy looks at the utters of a cow and says "I think I'll drink what comes out of those tings when I squeeze them.".

You're underestimating just how much of our early development came from observing the animals around us. Drinking cow (or goat) milk isn't that much of a stretch considering our our (well, female's own) already biological nature to produce our own milk, the statement really rather should be this; "Hey, we don't get nearly enough milk, we should start using the milk coming out of that thing over there."


Actually, on that subject a much more disturbing and entertaining utterance in history would probably be this; "Man, this milk is making me violently ill... but I'm going to force myself to drink it anyways and like it."
(Fun Fact: Historically humans were naturally lactose-intolerant upon reaching adulthood, but for whatever reason it was systematically breed out.)

[Teddy]

Aerial battleships. The image has stuck in my head for so long that I'm going to use it as a concept whenever a concept is needed. And then I'm not talking about some whimpy wooden-ship-under-a-balloon, but rather an all-out combo of a zeppelin and a World Wars era battleship, with heavy armor, heavy guns, flak and machineguns in every free spot you can find, huge funnels and giant radio antennas looking like giant spiderwebs.

[TheCountAlucard]

Re: Milk:

Actually the more interesting question is, "How'd we get from that stage, to cheese?" :confused:

"Yeah, just cleaning out the hut. Wow, didn't notice this cup of milk, here in the corner... I think this must've been from, like, two weeks ago. Man, it really doesn't look like milk anymore, it's all semi-solid now... I'm gonna try and eat it."

Not to mention casu marzu... :eek:

Actually, just food history in general. Consider: for longer than recorded history, humanity has been asking the exact same questions over, and over, and over...

"What is this thing, and how can I eat it? What parts of it should I eat? How can I enjoy it more when I eat it? How can I make it safer to eat? What can I add to it when I eat it? How can I ensure there's enough of it for me to keep eating it? How can I get other people to want to eat it?"

[Ravens_cry]

You are standing on a rock, that circles a sphere of gas so big, so enormous, that it undergoes nuclear fusion in a swarm of such spheres of larger and smaller size in swarm of these swarms in a universe so mind bogglingly big that we use the time it takes the fastest known thing in the universe to travel in several years to measure the distance to just the nearer of these spheres. And not only that, but you know all this. For a drop in the ocean of infinity, less then blink of the eye of creation, you have been given a gift, you are alive, matter that knows itself, more precious then any jewel or star.

[TheCountAlucard]

You are standing on a rock, that circles a sphere of gas so big, so enormous, that it undergoes nuclear fusion in a swarm of such spheres of larger and smaller size in swarm of these swarms in a universe so mind bogglingly big that we use the time it takes the fastest known thing in the universe to travel in several years to measure the distance to just the nearer of these spheres. And not only that, but you know all this. For a drop in the ocean of infinity, less then blink of the eye of creation, you have been given a gift, you are alive, matter that knows itself, more precious then any jewel or star.So, you're saying I have two options: live forever, or destroy the universe? :smallconfused:

[Ravens_cry]

So, you're saying I have two options: live forever, or destroy the universe? :smallconfused:Ww, that wasn't what I meant at all.:smalleek:

[TheCountAlucard]

Ww, that wasn't what I meant at all.:smalleek:Well, you know what they say: "When life gives you lemons, you bring about oblivion!"

[Dogmantra]

Well, you know what they say: "When life gives you lemons, you bring about oblivion!"

And sometimes life hands me an apple and I just don't know what to think.

[Ravens_cry]

Well, you know what they say: "When life gives you lemons, you bring about oblivion!"
How very petulant and petty.:smallfrown:
***
OK interesting things. From the 50's and early 60's, US Scientists worked on a spaceship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion))that could carry over 1600 TONS to low earth orbit. When NASA was struggling to launch less then one and half kilograms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_1)into orbit, this was a spaceship the likes of which the world had never seen and still has not. It's operation principle was mighty strange and unconventional as well, yet elegant in its brutality. Like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCrPNEsQaY), but with shaped nuclear charges that vaporized propellent that impacted the pusher plate, each blast sending the spacecraft lurching upward and onward. It was hoped to be ready in time for the "Grand Tour", an exploration of the outer planets made feasible by a once in several lifetimes planetary alignment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Grand_Tour).
Alas, or fortunately, it was not meant to be.

[Ichneumon]

In the end, even if we have friend and loved ones, in a sense we all die alone.

[LOTRfan]

In the end, even if we have friend and loved ones, in a sense we all die alone.

:smallfrown: Thank you, for that insight.... :smallyuk:

[Ravens_cry]

In the end, even if we have friend and loved ones, in a sense we all die alone.
And in a sense, we all live alone in our heads, locked in our bodies.
And yet, we can reach out to others in a thousand subtle ways of word and action, been loved and loved in return. Life footsteps in the water, we may pass seemingly without trace, yet there is still the ripples we leave behind, the pool stirred with each passing.
No, we are not immortal gods of time and space, we are humans, fragile, flawed, and beautiful, THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLEN ANGEL MEETS
THE RISING APE.
I love you, Humans.

[Thufir]

That's decent, but I've come up with better.

EXAMPLE: A guy looks at the utters of a cow and says "I think I'll drink what comes out of those tings when I squeeze them.".

Seriously? You think the roots of dairy farming are more interesting than the roots of freaking MATHS?!

[Frozen_Feet]

That's because root of math isn't all that interesting. It's actually an ubiquitous quality of animals to be able to count and differentiate at lest four objects. It basically stems from the observation that "hey, there's one rock, and there's another rock, and then there's that rock, and then there are lots of rocks".

Dairy farming, and forms of agriculture, actually require quite remarkable leaps of logic that require observations, and keener understanding of said observations, which are much more unintuitive and complex than basic math. So while math has since created constructs that are more mind-bogling than most things relating to farming, the roots of farming are more interesting.

If there's something mind-bogling in math, it's zero. Not the fact that it was invented, but that it was so darn hard for people to, historically, give a numerical shape to something as basic as "nothing".

[Mauve Shirt]

The foods that confuse me most are shellfish. Who first looked at a crab and thought "I will eat that large sea bug", or at an oyster and thought "I will break open that rock and eat the slug that I find inside it"?

[Thufir]

That's because root of math isn't all that interesting. It's actually an ubiquitous quality of animals to be able to count and differentiate at lest four objects. It basically stems from the observation that "hey, there's one rock, and there's another rock, and then there's that rock, and then there are lots of rocks".

Dairy farming, and forms of agriculture, actually require quite remarkable leaps of logic that require observations, and keener understanding of said observations, which are much more unintuitive and complex than basic math. So while math has since created constructs that are more mind-bogling than most things relating to farming, the roots of farming are more interesting.

If there's something mind-bogling in math, it's zero. Not the fact that it was invented, but that it was so darn hard for people to, historically, give a numerical shape to something as basic as "nothing".

You're missing the point. The really interesting point is not the root of maths in and of itself - as you say, that's a fairly natural, ubiquitous quality. What makes it interesting is the fact that that very simple and ubiquitous quality has since led to, well, maths. All of it. Massive complexity built out of staggering simplicity.

[Ravens_cry]

The foods that confuse me most are shellfish. Who first looked at a crab and thought "I will eat that large sea bug", or at an oyster and thought "I will break open that rock and eat the slug that I find inside it"?
"Hunger is the best sauce.":smallamused:

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Seriously? You think the roots of dairy farming are more interesting than the roots of freaking MATHS?!
Yaayyy! British person!


You are standing on a rock, that circles a sphere of gas so big, so enormous, that it undergoes nuclear fusion in a swarm of such spheres of larger and smaller size in swarm of these swarms in a universe so mind bogglingly big that we use the time it takes the fastest known thing in the universe to travel in several years to measure the distance to just the nearer of these spheres. And not only that, but you know all this. For a drop in the ocean of infinity, less then blink of the eye of creation, you have been given a gift, you are alive, matter that knows itself, more precious then any jewel or star.
Good one. That was actually really awesome. Humans are so cool.

[Frozen_Feet]

You're missing the point. The really interesting point is not the root of maths in and of itself - as you say, that's a fairly natural, ubiquitous quality. What makes it interesting is the fact that that very simple and ubiquitous quality has since led to, well, maths. All of it. Massive complexity built out of staggering simplicity.

If I am missing the point, then I must point out that your facetious question was ill-formed: "You think the roots of dairy farming are more interesting than the roots of freaking MATHS?!" You weren't talking about the extended constructs there.

And I feel compelled to point out that derivants of dairy farming are amazingly complex as well. Think of, for example, all the foodstuffs made of milk, and the massive effort of logistics required to move cattle and their products from place to place. It took us long to get there too, and it contains fair share of interesting things on itself.

[Brother Oni]

The discussion on the roots of discovering farming reminded me about the book Guns, Germs and Steel, which wondered why it was the Western Europeans who conquered the Americas, rather than the various native Americans conquering Western Europe.

Most of it boiled down to sheer luck as to where suitable wild strains predecessors of crops could be harnessed by people, giving rise to concentrations of people in farming communities, allowing various diseases to develop (little things like smallpox, plague, STDs, that sort of thing).
The relative ease of production and oversupply of food left more time for people to think, thus develop better tools and techniques and things just spiralled from there.



Anyway, in answer to the original question - why organisms have developed the way they have.
For example, all predators have forward facing eyes (so they have stereo vision to better enable distance calculations) while all prey species have sideways mounted eyes (so they can watch more of the surrounding environment for flickers of movement caused by the aforementioned predators).
Then we get started on the different types of teeth (for their different food types) and the way musculature/joints are all hinged and connected the way they are... and people wonder why mad scientists get so caught up in creating life. :smallbiggrin:

[Dr.Epic]

Anything and everything that comes out of Axe Cop.

[grimbold]

interstelllar pirates
i wrote a story about them when i was 11 it was like 60 pages long and just pages and pages of ridiculous violence
i would love to read a good book about them

[Moff Chumley]

That's decent, but I've come up with better.

EXAMPLE: A guy looks at the utters of a cow and says "I think I'll drink what comes out of those tings when I squeeze them.".

Someone read Calvin & Hobbes as a child, hmmm? :smalltongue:


In the end, even if we have friend and loved ones, in a sense we all die alone.

You're my favorite. :smallbiggrin:

[Jokasti]

I find it interesting that you can't prove anything.

[rayne_dragon]

2 things:

1) The discovery that various poisonous plants and animals could be prepared a specific way that will make them edible. I can sort of get milk, cheese, and oysters as all comming from observing animals feeding or simple trial and error - but discovering things like having to freeze a plant to make it no longer poisonous or something like fugu or whatever that poisonous blowfish is called that has to be prepared in a very specific way. Given how much trouble humanity has with ergot, e-coli, keeping drinking water clean, and other food contamination issues it comes as a surprise that humans can manage more complicated foods just fine.

2) the idea that at some point all the atoms in our bodies were just simple hydrogen atoms that got baked in stars until the condensed together via fusion to make all the various compounds that interact chemically with such perfection as to give rise to intelligent life. That we are all formed from the ashes of dead stars has been one of the most fascinating things in the universe to me, especially given how impressive it is for a star to make anything denser than helium and how much uranium there is just on earth. Even just chemistry and quantum mechanics themselves are fascinating.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

interstelllar pirates
i wrote a story about them when i was 11 it was like 60 pages long and just pages and pages of ridiculous violence
i would love to read a good book about them

I did similar. Can you post your story?

[Ravens_cry]

Someone read Calvin & Hobbes as a child, hmmm? :smalltongue:

What do you mean, "as a child"?:smalltongue:


Good one. That was actually really awesome. Humans are so cool.
Yeah, I like them a lot.

[Trog]

That the most abundant elements in the Milky Way Galaxy (estimated spectroscopically) are, in order:

Hydrogen
Helium
Oxygen
Carbon
Neon
Iron
Nitrogen


The bold ones above are the most common elements in a typical living cell, comprising 98% of it. The major building blocks of life are among the most abundant things in the galaxy.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

That the most abundant elements in the Milky Way Galaxy (estimated spectroscopically) are, in order:

Hydrogen
Helium
Oxygen
Carbon
Neon
Iron
Nitrogen


The bold ones above are the most common elements in a typical living cell, comprising 98% of it. The major building blocks of life are among the most abundant things in the galaxy.

I like serious responses. Thank you.