Size of Societies - Learning from Nature

[dennislmay]

Egg-Laying Beginning of the End for Dinosaurs

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120417221713.htm

Weighing in at four tons, the mother animal was 2,500 times heavier than its newly hatched dinosaur baby. By way of comparison, a mother elephant, which is just as heavy, only weighs 22 times as much as its new-born calf. In other words, neonates are already big in large mammal species. The staggering difference in size between newly hatched dinosaurs and their parents was down to the fact that there are limits to the size eggs can become:...

"The consensus among researchers is that animals of particular body sizes occupy particular niches. In the case of the dinosaurs, this would mean that a single species occupied the majority of the ecological niches while mammals occupied these through numerous species of different sizes." Accordingly, the research results reveal that dinosaurs of a small and medium body size were represented with far fewer individual species than was the case in mammals -- because their niches were occupied by the young of larger species.

The third insight that the computer simulation illustrates concerns small dinosaurs: They were in competition both among their own ranks and with small mammals. And this increased pressure brought the small dinosaurs either to the brink of extinction or forced them to conquer new niches. The latter enabled them to guarantee their survival up to the present day, as Codron concludes, since "back then, they had to take to the air as birds."

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Societies occupy niches much as species do. Large nation-states are presently the type of society demonstrating the ability to maintain an industrial base. The questions I am interested in are what other options might exist in the near future for industrial societies - in particular the effects of remote and automated systems, the move to industrialize space, and the effects of WoMD on the continued viability of large nation-states in their present form.

It is my view that remote and automated systems can significantly reduce the minimum size of self sustaining industrial societies, remote and automated systems are required to industrialize space, and that WoMD will soon begin to degrade the viability of large nation-states in their present form.

New niches are about to open while others are closing. What kind of society can adapt is the question.

Dennis

[BaalChatzaf]

Egg-Laying Beginning of the End for Dinosaurs

http://www.scienceda...20417221713.htm

Weighing in at four tons, the mother animal was 2,500 times heavier than its newly hatched dinosaur baby. By way of comparison, a mother elephant, which is just as heavy, only weighs 22 times as much as its new-born calf. In other words, neonates are already big in large mammal species. The staggering difference in size between newly hatched dinosaurs and their parents was down to the fact that there are limits to the size eggs can become:...

"The consensus among researchers is that animals of particular body sizes occupy particular niches. In the case of the dinosaurs, this would mean that a single species occupied the majority of the ecological niches while mammals occupied these through numerous species of different sizes." Accordingly, the research results reveal that dinosaurs of a small and medium body size were represented with far fewer individual species than was the case in mammals -- because their niches were occupied by the young of larger species.

The third insight that the computer simulation illustrates concerns small dinosaurs: They were in competition both among their own ranks and with small mammals. And this increased pressure brought the small dinosaurs either to the brink of extinction or forced them to conquer new niches. The latter enabled them to guarantee their survival up to the present day, as Codron concludes, since "back then, they had to take to the air as birds."

*******************

Societies occupy niches much as species do. Large nation-states are presently the type of society demonstrating the ability to maintain an industrial base. The questions I am interested in are what other options might exist in the near future for industrial societies - in particular the effects of remote and automated systems, the move to industrialize space, and the effects of WoMD on the continued viability of large nation-states in their present form.

It is my view that remote and automated systems can significantly reduce the minimum size of self sustaining industrial societies, remote and automated systems are required to industrialize space, and that WoMD will soon begin to degrade the viability of large nation-states in their present form.

New niches are about to open while others are closing. What kind of society can adapt is the question.

Dennis

Humans are expelled from the womb half baked. Newborn babies have one pound brains (not enough to be a person) because to have full size brains the head would large than the birth canal. Since human females did not evolved to have birth canals the size of the Lincoln Tunnel, new born infants must be expelled before they are fully developed. Humans are the least developed of the primates at birth and therefore require more nurturing at birth than in other primate species.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[dennislmay]

Egg-Laying Beginning of the End for Dinosaurs

http://www.scienceda...20417221713.htm

Weighing in at four tons, the mother animal was 2,500 times heavier than its newly hatched dinosaur baby. By way of comparison, a mother elephant, which is just as heavy, only weighs 22 times as much as its new-born calf. In other words, neonates are already big in large mammal species. The staggering difference in size between newly hatched dinosaurs and their parents was down to the fact that there are limits to the size eggs can become:...

"The consensus among researchers is that animals of particular body sizes occupy particular niches. In the case of the dinosaurs, this would mean that a single species occupied the majority of the ecological niches while mammals occupied these through numerous species of different sizes." Accordingly, the research results reveal that dinosaurs of a small and medium body size were represented with far fewer individual species than was the case in mammals -- because their niches were occupied by the young of larger species.

The third insight that the computer simulation illustrates concerns small dinosaurs: They were in competition both among their own ranks and with small mammals. And this increased pressure brought the small dinosaurs either to the brink of extinction or forced them to conquer new niches. The latter enabled them to guarantee their survival up to the present day, as Codron concludes, since "back then, they had to take to the air as birds."

*******************

Societies occupy niches much as species do. Large nation-states are presently the type of society demonstrating the ability to maintain an industrial base. The questions I am interested in are what other options might exist in the near future for industrial societies - in particular the effects of remote and automated systems, the move to industrialize space, and the effects of WoMD on the continued viability of large nation-states in their present form.

It is my view that remote and automated systems can significantly reduce the minimum size of self sustaining industrial societies, remote and automated systems are required to industrialize space, and that WoMD will soon begin to degrade the viability of large nation-states in their present form.

New niches are about to open while others are closing. What kind of society can adapt is the question.

Dennis

Humans are expelled from the womb half baked. Newborn babies have one pound brains (not enough to be a person) because to have full size brains the head would large than the birth canal. Since human females did not evolved to have birth canals the size of the Lincoln Tunnel, new born infants must be expelled before they are fully developed. Humans are the least developed of the primates at birth and therefore require more nurturing at birth than in other primate species.

Ba'al Chatzaf

I have recently read where some dinosaurs laid eggs that were just about to hatch in order to reduce their exposure time as eggs. Some smaller reptiles, fish, and amphibians bear live young letting their eggs hatch internally before sending out their young. I'm sure some smaller dinosaurs did this as well. These solutions still did not solve the problem of bearing large live young for large dinosaurs in order to avoid the problem of crossing multiple niches during development.

Dennis