Random furry thoughts

[Alion]

-looks around nervously- this is my first topic (other than my intro) that I'm posting. I'm a bit nervous but here goes nothing. This is just to get all of those strangely interesting foughts furries fink about out in the open and to discuss some thoughts on different things from fruit to mutant marshmallows from mars. So I'll start by saying something that really been bothering me lately. What happens to all of those socks that mysteriously go missing? Any thoughts?

[Ember]

A question I have asked many times before! I could almost swear on my life that my little brother eats my socks... It would be far too suspicious if his own socks started disappearing, so he eats mine instead O.o (strangely my old school socks never seem to disappear).

[Contrast]

But the answer is so obvious! They migrate to Sock Island! Where they dance to mad DJ beats and sip margaritas and party all night long. There's an insurance commercial all about it.

[rusted hydra]

then my socks must be like me ( hate big parties ) because they come back after awile and never dissapear again,

[Contrast]

Since this thread is for random thoughts, I'll share some of my own.
If "he" is a "him", why isn't "she" a "shim"?
And if paper burns up, why does a house burn down?
And why does the WWE wrestler CM Punk have the Pepsi logo tattooed on his left shoulder?

[Alion]

I believe in sock island. The only mystery is how do they get there? I've seen the ad but socks can't just crawl over the ocean can they? As for the shim,I honestly have no idea.

[Contrast]

They construct little rafts like Tom Hanks did in "Cast away".

[Faanvolla]

If "he" is a "him", why isn't "she" a "shim"?
And if paper burns up, why does a house burn down?
And why does the WWE wrestler CM Punk have the Pepsi logo tattooed on his left shoulder?

I'll give you my best guesses. :p
1: I think it has something to do with pronunciation.

2: Burning paper floats upward (mine did), and a house collapses.

3:Might be his sponsor?

[Contrast]

"Could God heat up a burrito so hot that He Himself could not eat it?" - Homer Simpson

[Vega]

Why does rain makes one sad and but then comes a rainbow and make everyone happy again?
I love the rain even though it makes me sad.

[Alion]

Rain dampens everything (pun intended) even your mood

[Contrast]

I didn't use to mind the rain, but then I got TopTV. Rain screws up the signal. Cheap dish *edited (PG-13 language please )* ...

[Vega]

Yeah I also got that, and they have so............ Many repeats

[Contrast]

I didn't use to mind the rain, but then I got TopTV. Rain screws up the signal. Cheap dish *edited (PG-13 language please )* ...

But it's in the dictionary! How can it be swearing if it's in the dictionary!?

[Faanvolla]

its a word with meaning, that means it should be in a dict. swearword or no.

[Contrast]

ALL swearwords have meaning, but that doesn't give them an automatic spot in the dictionary. Only "real" words suitable for perfectly acceptable academic English can be found in the Chambers Dictionary. Therefore, I do not consider the word I used to be a swear at all, but rather a perfectly apt description of a group of cheap b******s.

[Grayhound]

Alas, i'll need you to prove that their parentage is in doubt before I allow that to be posted here. Nice try though

[Alion]

Speaking of swearing,what's the point? Its not like saying the F word when something goes wrong is going to fix it. I think its just a waste of breath to swear

[Faanvolla]

And it could get you in trouble or make you receive glares.
I think that when you -see a spider/get hurt- you need to let others know that there is a danger in the close proximity.
This could have been a primative instinct.

[Valerion]

Speaking of swearing,what's the point? Its not like saying the F word when something goes wrong is going to fix it. I think its just a waste of breath to swear

It is a way to relieve mental tension. Similar to hitting a wall with your fist. Or killing THOUSANDS OF ENEMY SPACESHIPS! It channels anger into a less destructive route, discharging it in a harmless way. It may also indicate the depth of your emotions to other people.

Of course, some people take it too far, like most things in life.

[Grayhound]

My preferred method of stress relief? There's a pc game called Superpower 2. You pick a country like Russia a launch a nuclear strike on the USA. Watching the world fill up with pretty lights as all the alliances start triggering nuclear strikes at each other is oddly soothing and helps put things into perspective.

[Alion]

Interesting... I think i'll stick to screaming into my pillow to relieve stress. much less hassle then killing countless millions

[Contrast]

I just lock away all my anger into my subconscious where it can fester away quietly as a mental illness.

[Alion]

Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

[Contrast]

Just going by stats and math, they SHOULD exist.

[Alion]

What do you think they would look like?

[Contrast]

If they have the same requirements for life as us, then we can assume that their basic anatomy won't be all that different from our own. A sun is needed for life, and that means light, so eyes are almost certain (unless they live underground or deep beneath the oceans). They would need some form of propulsion to chase after prey and escape predators, so they'd probably have legs. If they have the same senses as us (touch, smell, hearing, taste, sight) then it would make sense for their sensory organs to be grouped near the brain, so we can expect them to have heads attached to one end of their bodies much like the animals of Earth. If they are intelligent beings capable of using tools, then they probably have some means to manipulate their environment, something like hands.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

If they have the same requirements for life as us, then we can assume that their basic anatomy won't be all that different from our own.

-Shudders- No.... The later parts of the post were better where you provided justifications but it's more likely that they won't be anything like us. Humans, and all apes and monkeys, are not a common form. If they followed mammals they would more than likely be like either rodents or bats (together they account for more than 50% of mammal species). If they were similar to animals they would be more like insects, specifically beetles. Alien life could just be like bacteria or maybe it would just be plant life. There are countless ways to be and the path leading to any specific one is so rare as it to make it almost impossible that you will find an alien species that looks like us.

[Contrast]

You just love dissing everybody, don't you Rakuen?

If you look at the basic anatomy of even two very different animals here on Earth, such as humans and lizards for example, you'll see that we're actually not all that different.
We both have a head containing two eyes, two ears, a mouth, a brain. We both have four limbs, We even have the same internal organs for the most part, even though we are mammals and lizards are reptiles.

The vast majority of life in the universe must be very simple and basic, like you said, but I chose to describe aliens that could potentially contact us, rather than insects or bacteria, because that is the most likely scenario for First Contact.

[Rakuen Growlithe]

You just love dissing everybody, don't you Rakuen?

If you look at the basic anatomy of even two very different animals here on Earth, such as humans and lizards for example, you'll see that we're actually not all that different.
We both have a head containing two eyes, two ears, a mouth, a brain. We both have four limbs, We even have the same internal organs for the most part, even though we are mammals and lizards are reptiles.

The vast majority of life in the universe must be very simple and basic, like you said, but I chose to describe aliens that could potentially contact us, rather than insects or bacteria, because that is the most likely scenario for First Contact.

Nope. But I do like science.

There are similarities between animals here yes but there's also a very good reason for that. All life on earth evolved from a common ancestor. When you look at animals they share a more recent common ancestor than other animals and bacteria or animals and plants. That common ancestry dictates that the more recently they shared a common ancestor the more similar they will be, with some exceptions in unlikely circumstances. Lizards and humans are similar because they both had a common ancestor with that basic body plan.

If you start talking about alien life you will be talking about life evolving with no connection to Earth and no reason to evolve in any way similar to us. You can't use similar features amongst animals here as to judge how aliens will develop because they will not share ancestry and they will not share the same conditions during their evolution.

That's not to say that there won't be similarities but they will be very much more general. For example if they have a direction then you can expect their sense organs to face that way. However, as you did point out, if they grow in the dark they won't have vision like us. In fact even if they can see they won't necessarily have vision like us. Many insects can see ultraviolet light. They will maybe see in infrared.
They might not even have a body with a direction. Octopuses are very intelligent for invertebrates yet their body is more radially symmetrical than ours and allows them to move in any direction. In such a case they won't have a "head" or any sense of "forward."

That's where the problem lies. You're basing what a different life form might look like but using our existing life as a base. That's not a valid assumption. You need to try and imagine what could be if something started from scratch and how it would then solve those problems. Even then you'll probably be far off. As Orgel's Second Rule states, "Evolution is cleverer than you are."