gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Penguin - Stealing Sanity)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2005-10-25 03:29 pm
Entry tags:

The walls, closing in!

Researching the mass of internal organs (for the Blimps v2.0) is getting annoying, I've hit refresh on my friends page far too often, and I need air.

Going for a walk, terminus of which will be a bookstore.

Release the penguins!
kengr: (Default)

[personal profile] kengr 2005-10-26 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
Don't forget that for many species (mammals, I'm sure of, not sure about reptiles or birds) intelligence is related to the *surface area* of the brain, not the volume. Which is why the surface of our brains is so convoluted.

It occurs to me that spreading the brain over the inner surface of the gasbag might have some advantages.

[identity profile] gridlore.livejournal.com 2005-10-26 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
But would that have a distinct drawback in time for signals to travel? Neural impusles run at around 750mph, if memory serves. Slow enough for a measurable lapse between stimulus at the extremites and the response.

In a 3 or 4 meter globe, that effect is going to be heightened.
kengr: (Default)

[personal profile] kengr 2005-10-27 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
In *most* species it travels that slow. In others, it's much faster. I think squid are one of the ones with faster transmission speeds.