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Average Life Form
Create a model of a creature based on average dimensions of all life on Earth | |
Take the idea of morphing two pictures of different
animals together into a third to the next step. Morph three
dimensional representation of all living things on Earth to
see what the "average" life form looks like.
Complex multi-cellular creatures are probably
outnumbered by the various
kinds of single celled
organisms so you might have to weigh the numbers so you
don't just get a boring looking amoeba thing.
An offshoot of this would be something where you had a
series of sliders, each one representing a particular animal
and you could add or subtract for instance, the "rabbitness"
and "lizardness" to your creature.
Not sure if you'd put plants in there. Yea, sure. Why not.
Mix this thing...
https://i.kinja-img...xq7boogqnxbvnsq.jpg
[doctorremulac3, May 24 2016]
...with this...
http://www.freaking...el-Rhino--16459.jpg
[doctorremulac3, May 24 2016]
...little bit of this guy here...
https://pbs.twimg.c...BNUFBreCEAAQcfs.jpg
[doctorremulac3, May 24 2016]
This one's a trip.
https://s-media-cac...c32586c1da4d566.jpg
[doctorremulac3, May 24 2016]
Ooo, my favorite!
http://stampsy-eu-1...0ca051b4d64b9b3.jpg
[doctorremulac3, May 24 2016]
These too..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wuzzles
The Wuzzles! [neutrinos_shadow, May 24 2016]
Spore
http://www.spore.com/what/spore
[Ling, May 25 2016]
Average human face
http://www.dailymai...ld-Chinese-man.html
Actually not, the video explains. [doctorremulac3, May 25 2016]
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Ignoring the m-f-d bait, this belongs in a :graphics category, not :biology, yes ? |
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Or you mean a "DNA resequencer", as touted in many SF stories. |
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//three dimensional representation of all living
things on Earth to see what the "average" life form
looks like// Baked - the Welsh. |
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Or geometric. Which would produce a sort of long-
necked Great White Giraffelephant. |
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//Mean, median or mode?//
I think all methods would result in a bacteria of some sort. |
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For certain a single cell, but what other features? Do we get a small flagella? Green? Which shape is most common? |
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Most animal species are beetles so if it looked like any
animal it would be slightly beetle-ey. |
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Most animal species are parasites. |
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Anyone remember "Spore" by Electronics Arts?
I think it also had sliders. |
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Ok, these are the numbers: |
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Vertebrates
Amphibians 6,199
Birds 9,956
Fish 30,000
Mammals 5,416
Reptiles 8,240
Subtotal 59,811 |
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Invertebrates
Insects 950,000
Molluscs 81,000
Crustaceans 40,000
Corals 2,175
Others 130,200
Subtotal 1,203,375 |
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Plants
Mosses 15,000
Ferns and allies 13,025
Gymnosperms 980
Dicotyledons 199,350
Monocotyledons 59,300
Green Algae 3,715
Red Algae 5,956
Subtotal 297,326 |
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Others
Lichens 10,000
Mushrooms 16,000
Brown Algae 2,849
Subtotal 28,849 |
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So basically you'd have to consider taking insects
out of the mix or you'd just get some insecty
looking thing. |
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Well, those are currently living things I assume.
Supposedly the great majority of things that have
lived are extinct. Is that everything? Dunno. |
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I was just thinking it would be interesting to
mash the visual profiles of all life together to see
what they looked
like on average but to kick out any one group that's
outnumbered every other group in their
representation like single celled organisms or
insects. |
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Just glancing at the numbers I'm thinking legs
would be barely represented in the final "average
Earthling", maybe little bumps at best. |
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Probably best to draw the average bird, fish,
mammal, reptile and them average them together.
I don't think the average plant would be terribly
interesting. The average lichen would most
definitely not be worth your time. |
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Not that that creating a picture of the average
quadruped or bird would. Eh, just an idea. |
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// how many actual individual living instances there are (today)? // |
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Well, you can knock one off the total for "insects". |
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By the way, the average human is asian. See link. |
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Actually, scratch that. After watching the associated
video they just picked the most numerous group of
people on the planet and averaged out that group's
features. |
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Not seeing an average human face. I'm sure there's
something on the web out there. Maybe I'll look later. |
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// Plants Mosses 15,000 Ferns and allies 13,025 Gymnosperms 980 Dicotyledons 199,350 Monocotyledons 59,300 Green Algae 3,715 Red Algae 5,956 Subtotal 297,326 |
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Others Lichens 10,000 Mushrooms 16,000 Brown Algae 2,849 Subtotal 28,849 |
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^^ worse than the US electoral college. We have to use # of individuals
or biomass to be even remotely representative. |
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Hmm. Plants, 1 celled organisms and insects are
going to over weigh the profile with their numbers. |
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Maybe just an all "fish+birds+mammals" hybrid. |
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I mean, it's got to be interesting looking.
A greenish
brown splat would be pretty anticlimactic. |
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Ladies and gentlemen! The average Earthling is...
envelope please.... brownish booger looking thing! |
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"They lichen me."
"They really lichen me!" |
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I can't see that we've talked about individuals or species
more. Nematodes are way more numerous than insects in
that sense, but haven't got so many species and aren't very
varied, so ignoring unicellular organisms, the average life
form would look like a worm with a few bumps on it, I think,
maybe a green one. |
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Wouldn't the average life form for any particular group look more or less like its evolutionary progenitor at the point of divergence from other classes, but before it diverged into subspecies, itself ? |
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I'm thinking yes to both of those comments. |
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Perhaps a better variant of this idea would be to grind a
blend of as many VISUALLY INTERESTING animals together
as you could to see what you could come up with. |
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So basically if we get a request from Andromeda that says
"Please send us an averaged out image of what you
Earthlings look like." we'd put only the best looking of us
life forms together to make something visually pleasing to
the 16 eyes of the aliens posting the request. Leave the
nematodes, bugs and germs out of it. |
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Well, if DNA usage is a constant across the universe, then we just send them that, so they know what spices to bring. |
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//Nematodes are way more numerous than insects in
that sense, but haven't got so many species// |
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Actually, there are believed to be about as many
species of nematode are there are species of insect.
This is the least-interesting fact that I know. |
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No, it's a fact that it is believed. I believe it, for
instance. |
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//This is the least-interesting fact that I know.// |
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Which is, ironically, sort of interesting. |
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//Can you prove you believe it?// Why, I believe I
can. |
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Somewhere far off, an epistemologist rolls over in her sleep, muttering uneasily. |
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Actually it was too bright and I didn't sleep well. |
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//Leave the nematodes, bugs and germs out of it//
Averaging all life is the only way to do it. Once you start picking and choosing, things become subjective and open to argument. And if you let a large group of people do the choosing (say, on an internet forum) you will end up with a fluffy kitten, guaranteed. |
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Yes, but I think we can all agree that if we do that we
can expect it to be a microscopic round thing with a few
bumps on it, no? |
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Although I guess to some extent that's interesting in
itself. I'm going to go out on a limb and make a wild guess
as to what the averaged Earth creature looks like. |
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"The averaged Earthling is about 1/10th of an inch long,
ovoid with several bumps all over its body. It has no
measurable intelligence and its sole purpose in life is to
eat, reproduce and die." |
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I think that's a pretty safe bet. |
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I'm gonna saaayyyy... yes. |
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Which could cause frustration when, at the
intergalactic meeting of life forms the consul general
from Andromeda calls on the human representative
from Earth by saying: "You, the large jellyfish from
the Sol star system with the long articulated
appendages." |
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Actually, if you consider viruses to be living, then
basically all terrestrial life is viruses. There are a
few major families of bacteriophages (viruses that
infect bacteria), and the average would look like one
of them. |
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//what would be the average information?//
These days? A Facebook selfie... |
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//If information is the dominant life form on Earth,
what would be the average information?// |
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A whole number between 0 and 1. |
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// The averaged Earthling is about 1/10th of an inch long, ovoid with several bumps all over its body. It has no measurable intelligence and its sole purpose in life is to eat, reproduce and die." // |
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Hmmm... how do you feel about mitochondria? many per cyte, (many cytes per organism, occasionally) and they have their own DNA |
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Whoa, Beany! Long time no see! |
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As usual I have no idea what you're talking about but
nice to hear from you. Where you been bro? |
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//Hmmm... how do you feel about mitochondria?// |
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If we weighted by volume, I think the average colour
would be green, with many limbs that waved about.
Sort of like big green men without the men part. |
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I quite like averages of anything.... Have this croissant
morsel to improve your own average. [+] |
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You're awesome Xenny, thank you! :) |
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