Ok, whichever scientist decided to take device that can supercool things to 1 degree Kelvin and put some tardigrdes in to see what happens is very nearly as cool as whoever decided it was a good idea to make frogs levitate with magnets.
The thing is, it gets complicated when you start thinking about hypothetical biomes. How efficient per weight can evolved nervous systems get? Are more efficient nervous systems more likely on lighter and heavier planets?
They’re too small to be intelligent enough for space travel.
Are they? What is the limit for how dense intelligence can be concentrated? I would bet that a superintelligence could design something that small that was intelligent enough for mere space travel. Just not out of proteins or dna.
But if we modified tardigrades to be able to support intelligence like ours and sent them into space, would it feel as though we were going out there? What if human minds were imprinted on them?
I might feel as though it were me if hands were included in the deal.
The most- and least-spaceworthy Earth species could provide a starting point. Maybe the cockroach and blue whale.
Most spaceworthy has to be the tardigrade.
Ok, whichever scientist decided to take device that can supercool things to 1 degree Kelvin and put some tardigrdes in to see what happens is very nearly as cool as whoever decided it was a good idea to make frogs levitate with magnets.
They’re too small to be intelligent enough for space travel.
I wonder how much space-worthiness varies with size. Perhaps you could use that.
The thing is, it gets complicated when you start thinking about hypothetical biomes. How efficient per weight can evolved nervous systems get? Are more efficient nervous systems more likely on lighter and heavier planets?
Are they? What is the limit for how dense intelligence can be concentrated? I would bet that a superintelligence could design something that small that was intelligent enough for mere space travel. Just not out of proteins or dna.
But if we modified tardigrades to be able to support intelligence like ours and sent them into space, would it feel as though we were going out there? What if human minds were imprinted on them?
I might feel as though it were me if hands were included in the deal.