Consider this

The Snark · Jul 31, 2014

There is a rope say, 100 feet high hanging in front of you. At the top is another rope that traverses horizontally another 100 feet. Assuming you have the musculature, you climb the first rope then traverse along the second one.
Restrictions. You can't use your thumbs. Also, you cannot flex your fingers to grip. In fact, your digits have been replaced with an assortment of rigid hooks.

Think about this the next time you see spiders wandering their webs. Add to your pondering, what sort of hooks does a salticid have that enables them to climb their safety lines but they are unable to traverse horizontally.

I wonder if humans will ever evolve enough to become as capable as spiders.

Python · Jul 31, 2014

I often think about this sort of thing. One thing that amazes me is how they can run so fast through a web without being able to see where they're putting those hooks. How can they process what all those limbs are doing with such precise placement. I doubt we will ever evolve to that level

The Snark · Jul 31, 2014

Meanwhile I'll keep banging away on making N2O3 + H2O = HNO4

Fini · Jul 31, 2014

Getting hairy palms would be a step in the right direction if your looking for a little more traction.

Alokin · Aug 1, 2014

I do not think mankinds strong suit is theyr muscles and our power to climb...it is our braines that will evolve in my opinion in a decade or two.And then maybe....MAYBE then we can actualy make something to resemble what you said

The Snark · Aug 1, 2014

Alokin said:
I do not think mankinds strong suit is theyr muscles and our power to climb...it is our braines that will evolve in my opinion in a decade or two.And then maybe....MAYBE then we can actualy make something to resemble what you said

Having spent some time in various midwest truck stops I'm going to have to challenge the decade or two. Eon, maybe. But don't just accuse me of being cynical. Head out there and do some analytical comparisons. Take along a toaster, a hair dryer and a shovel to help gauge the average IQ encountered. Or maybe it's just me but I feel certain I've had a number of more intellectually stimulating conversations with an H Venetoria. And many of them are a darned sight prettier.

Alokin · Aug 1, 2014

Well to be honest there are alot of stuped people and if we dont stope destroying our future just as we do atm ( i am talking bout as an example is the plain that was shot down near russia.It was filled with brilent scientist who were on the verg of descovering something great.)Human kind is gona be human kinds destroyer.But also there are actual smart ppl who can brake this fate and create a better future.I belive in humanity and that it will get to a point that it will reallise this!

WeeHector · Aug 6, 2014

The more I study spiders, the greater my respect for them becomes. Their bodies don't have bones or muscles; everything operates using hydraulics. They can move at a speed that even Usain Bolt can only dream of. They can totally wrap a prey in a cocoon of silk within seconds.

Our only real superiority is in brain-power and we don't always put that to the best of uses. If spiders could observe us as we observe them, I don't think they would be very impressed.

Smokehound714 · Aug 7, 2014

It's really cool how even the 'simplest' of arthropods can achieve movements and split-second reactions so quickly.

Like a fruitfly's ability to rapidly lift its body vertically, and spread all its legs to fly backward, and they do it faster than a person can blink.

Python · Aug 7, 2014

Our brain power is concentrated in a very small percentage of the population. On average, we would be picked off rather quickly should our technology fail us. Oh, there would be survivors to be sure but the population would suffer great losses. Predation on each other, suicide from the thought of living without Facebook, just plain not equipped to survive, the majority would die off pretty quickly. As a species we are successful only because we create tools to do our work for us but take those tools away and we become simply another prey item. I think if our brain power were really that impressive, we would have figured out that we have become dependent upon the things that don't matter. We like to think of ourselves as too successful to fail. When we do, it will be colossal.

The Snark · Aug 7, 2014

We live in a world that revolves around self centered egocentric greed and gluttony. Ideologies founded almost invariably upon prejudiced, biased or misinformed opinions run and rule our lives. What Socrates laid down, thinking for yourself, still remains a mental process limited to the very few who have been able to escape and utilize their minds free of dogma. As example, women breastfeeding when and where required are still ostracized by the majority of the enlightened first world. Meanwhile 800,000 children die every year from not being properly breast fed.
Meanwhile we are surrounded by teeming multitudes of animals who far exceed and excel us on the moral scale. What this world desperately needs is to leave 'self' behind and once more report to this planet, viewing it with the wide eyed wonder of the innocent child. The incredible splendor and beauty of our world, and the utterly amazing animals that live in it, providing our minds are open, offer incredible wonders that are there to serve as constant reminders that our true duty is to the planet and the living things within it, and not these superficial transient pleasures our lives presently revolve around.

What motivated me to start this thread was a day I kissed off being productive and completely wasted, mostly spent watching the antics of the salticids on our porch. Pretty twisted set of priorities, eh wot?

Python · Aug 7, 2014

Sounds like a pretty good set of priorities to me. Productive is all a state of mind anyway. There is much to be said for tranquility. If more people would slow down and enjoy the simple things the world would be a better place

AphonopelmaTX · Aug 7, 2014

The Snark said:
Think about this the next time you see spiders wandering their webs. Add to your pondering, what sort of hooks does a salticid have that enables them to climb their safety lines but they are unable to traverse horizontally.

Was this statement based on scientific literature or by never seeing one do this? I've seen first hand a Salticid move horizontally across a strand of silk to move from point A to point B. The one I saw released a strand of silk in the air and when it attached to something else, the spider moved across it then released it's line of silk from the object.

The Snark said:
I wonder if humans will ever evolve enough to become as capable as spiders.

Already have. The conversation here are primarily based on the human ability to think, solve problems, and invent, but our physiology along with other mammals are far more capable than any spider's.

The Snark · Aug 7, 2014

AphonopelmaTX said:
Was this statement based on scientific literature or by never seeing one do this? I've seen first hand a Salticid move horizontally across a strand of silk to move from point A to point B. The one I saw released a strand of silk in the air and when it attached to something else, the spider moved across it then released it's line of silk from the object.

Could you please tell me the species of the salticid? One thing is certain; never underestimate the capabilities of animals, especially extraordinary ones like the jumpers.

dementedlullaby · Aug 7, 2014

The Snark said:
I wonder if humans will ever evolve enough to become as capable as spiders.

I'm going to go ahead and bet that we will wipe ourselves out long before this is possible

.

Micrathena · Aug 7, 2014

I hate it when people say "It's just a bug."
It's just a naked ape.

Python · Aug 8, 2014

AphonopelmaTX said:
Already have. The conversation here are primarily based on the human ability to think, solve problems, and invent, but our physiology along with other mammals are far more capable than any spider's.

I've never seen a spider kill a fly for it's shoes. Check the news and tell me again how evolved we are

The Snark · Aug 8, 2014

AphonopelmaTX said:
Already have. The conversation here are primarily based on the human ability to think, solve problems, and invent, but our physiology along with other mammals are far more capable than any spider's.

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons." -Douglas Adams-

Alokin · Aug 15, 2014

The Snark said:
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons." -Douglas Adams-

Read the quote from my signature that is what i got to say....every spicies has its pecific trait...a hiden ace if you will....Ours is our brain...i just hope our gluttony and envy doesn't get to us first !!!

Dizzle · Aug 16, 2014

For some reason this thread title makes me think of Bill Nye the science guy..."Please....consider the following.."

Consider this

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