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flying humans
Topic Started: Oct 11 2010, 12:12 AM (2,261 Views)
Owl Streak
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Do you think that if people used there arms enough their arms could possibly support them if we developed flight?
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Spugpow
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Yeah, those are called hang gliders.

:D just kidding. Yeah, that might provide enough extra control to be worthwhile. You'd need some pretty strong arms to keep the wings steady, though.
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Toad of Spades
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Yeah that'd be awsome. Being able to turn high up in the air and fly like a pterosaur would be an incredible experience. Though you would probably need to work out for a while in order to build up your arm strength. The muscle power needed to lift one wing to turn or flap both wings to gain altitude would be pretty substantial. It would be worth it though to fly like a pterosaur.

One problem is pulling the parachute. How would you pull the cord when your arms and legs are in a tight fitting pterosaur patagium? How will you get your hands out from inside the wings as well as out of the wing straps?
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colddigger
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Make the wings so that you have to hold onto handle bars, if you let go of the handlebar then the wing lets you freely pull the chute.
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Flisch
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Considering the heaviest bird capable of flying is about one fourth of an average human's weight, I'd say man can't take to the skies with only his own muscle power.

Spugpow
 
Boy, those squirrel suits sure do work. The videos on Youtube are amazing, it's exactly how you'd imagine flying to be...

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Edited by Flisch, Oct 15 2010, 05:17 AM.
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The Kiat
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Why would our arms evolve into wings? There would be no point. See, we have these things called airplanes...
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Spugpow
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Squirrel suit video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttz5oPpF1Js
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Xenophile
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In order for any new species with signifigant adaptations like wings to evolve, it would require some extreemly strong evolutionary pressures to drive the changes as well as a few hundred million years. Considering that humans have already specalised as an intelligent sophont, I find it highly unlikly for such a change to occur. There simply isn't any driving selective pressure for such a change to be advantagous.
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Spugpow
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There's a planet I'm working on called Fragor that's criss-crossed with thousands of canyon systems. Perhaps human colonists living in the canyons and cut off from civilization for millions of years could evolve natural squirrel suits?
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Dragon wasp
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you 've got a project?

hooray! This'll be cool.
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Spugpow
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Awww, thanks.

The ideas are still in their infancy, though, so it'll probably be a while before I put any of it up.
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T.Neo
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I seriously doubt humans would specialise and evolve natural squirrel suits like that...

They'd just learn how to build bridges and helicopters. Also, planets tend to have plenty of features other than canyon systems. See some of the canyons on Mars, that can be quite extensive, but don't cover the entire planet...
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Spugpow
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No, I was thinking they'd be focused in a region around the equator with enormous deposits of soft stone eroded by rivers and rain. I was imagining it looking something like this: http://photos.wildmadagascar.org/images/tsingy_from_above.shtml

But on a much larger scale with wider canyons (ravine might be a better word) and horizontal forests growing on the canyon walls.

Oh, and about the evolution of gliding in large animals, the Sifaka (a lemur) has limited gliding capability. http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/08/literally_flying_lemurs.php

edit: for more amazing and awesomely amazingly amazing pictures like the one above, google search "tsingy".

Edited by Spugpow, Oct 16 2010, 03:49 PM.
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Dragon wasp
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can't wait to see your project!

oh and when i looked at the hang glider video i saw the funniest and awesomest things ever:






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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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Mmm, I don't think a sophont would allow themselves to be pushed to change, those guys in the video were able to pull off a flying squirrel act without the need for millions of years of evolution for example. I think technology and culture is what would change to allow for artificially flying people, and even then having "wings" would be more of a sport thing when you could just have pulleys and bridges and stairs and elevators...

But if the species is possibly on the brink of sophoncy (lolwut) and they are able to glide then they might develop into flying sophonts. Although large brains and flying don't seem to work well together due to weight problems...
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Spugpow
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Then I guess we resort to genetic engineering. *sigh*

Great videos, Dragonwasp, especially the car one. :D
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