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I kind of skipped through this article, but one thing occurs to me about big brains is - cooling. In Alastair Reynolds Conjoiner novels, the Conjoiners have to
by zabzonk 1y ago
I kind of skipped through this article, but one thing occurs to me about big brains is - cooling. In Alastair Reynolds Conjoiner novels, the Conjoiners have to have heat-sinks built into their heads, and are on the verge of not really being human at all. Which I guess may be OK, if that's what you want.
- ajcp 1y agoI believe it's the Revelation Space series of Alastair Reynolds novels that mention the Conjoiners.
- zabzonk 1y agoYes, and other ones, such as "The Great Wall of Mars" - it's the same shared universe, all of which feature the Conjoiners and their brains and starship drives.
- kabdib 1y agotrivia: brain heatsinks also feature in Julian May's Pliocene Saga (in The Adversary IIRC) and A.A. Attanasio's Radix
- stavros 1y agoCouldn't you just watercool brains? Isn't that how they're cooled already?
- FeteCommuniste 1y agoReminds me of how Aristotle thought that the brain’s purpose was to cool the blood.
- pixl97 1y agoWell, our entire body works as a swamp cooler via sweat evaporation, yes. The issue with us is wet bulb temps and dehydration. It can already brain damage us pretty quickly and makes some parts of the world already dangerous to exist in outside. Adding to this cooling load would require further changes such as large ears or skin flaps to provide more surface area unless you're going with the straight technological integration path.
- tjpnz 1y agoRocky from Project Hail Mary is also heatsinked.
- someothherguyy 1y agoLikely would be larger skulls and bodies, not more dense, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_neurons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_n...
- jjtheblunt 1y agoDesert hares (jackrabbits) have heatsinks built into their heads too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare