4 ms·
As an explicit example, winglets on airplanes were conceptualized from watching the way bird wings flap, observing the curl on the outer edge of the wing, disco
by FakeComments 8y ago
As an explicit example, winglets on airplanes were conceptualized from watching the way bird wings flap, observing the curl on the outer edge of the wing, discovering that it controls vortex formation, and then applying the same concepts to fixed wings.
That kind of thing happens all the time in aerodynamics, fluid dynamics, mechanics, etc — precisely because evolution is a pretty good optimization function, and so “natural” solutions can often be very close to optimal, but using hard-to-discover quirks of physics.
- trentlott 8y agoOne of my favored arguments for maintaining as much biodiversity as we possibly can. Each species' death is millions of years of labwork trashed
- Radim 8y agoLabwork with as loosely defined goals as life ("reproduce", "accelerate rise of entropy") is costly. It's a robust, deep objective long-term, but extremely inarticulate with poor ROI short-term. A species of spider nailing down how to live on a particular type of rock on a particular island, in a very particular environment over millions of years, is simply not articulate enough "lab work". Which is of course not an argument for killing off species. But it's an argument against approaching that moral question from such utilitarian perspective. You might easily end up with results you don't like, once you do the cost/benefit analysis in a less hand-wavy manner.
- _Schizotypy 8y agoI think the fact that it IS so inarticulate, but that the work has already been put in, is one of the best reasons to protect biodiversity
- Radim 8y agoThe "sunk cost" fallacy :-)
- _Schizotypy 8y agoyep life was wasteful, time to wipe it out and start over amirite?