4 ms·
Assuming a two handed alien of course.
by jcoffland 10y ago
Assuming a two handed alien of course.
- hossbeast 10y agoMany handed
- Semiapies 10y agoBut only bilaterally symmetrical. Radially symmetric aliens with hands give no indication! (Well, aside from whether or not they blow up whatever local matter surface they're standing on.)
- grkvlt 10y agoThat's neither necessary or sufficient! Notice that they could be bilaterally symmetric and two arms/hands positioned vertically on their front (anterior?) so no left/right hand distinction (but top/bottom instead) or; they could be asymmetric but have two hands/arms on one side, and one on the other, still giving them a left/right side choice.
- grkvlt 10y agoAnd also attached to different sides, not in a vertical row straight up the front of the creature, for instance... (When asked "What do you look for in a woman?" the Mathematician answers "Bilateral symmetry, of course!")
- ianai 10y agoI'm just proud when a physicist assumes a cows not a perfect spheroid.
- stan_rogers 10y agoIn Feynman's story, the "alien" we meet is an artificial human (a biological Locutus, if you will) built using a description we sent them rather than a coincidentally humanoid life form. For a throw-away illustration taking only a couple of minutes in the middle of a lecture about symmetry, the guy filled in a lot of the obvious gaping holes.