Friday 23 March 2018

#481 Life as a pool table - part 4

The concept of sight-related movement
Scattered about the piece of slate are some smooth pebbles of various shapes and sizes. Some of the pebbles are small enough to interact with the light-senstive particles. A dust ball with a light-sensitive particle crater rolls over a pebble and the pebble sticks to it, becoming embedded in the dust ball, near the crater. Now, when reflected light from the surface dust causes the light-sensitive particles to react, they in turn push the pebble out to the surface of the dust ball. Having a smooth pebble on its surface makes the dust ball roll fractionally faster. It rolls a greater distance over its life span, increasing its chance of finding food, mating and reproducing.

The concept of inheritance
Whenever two dust balls mate and reproduce, pieces of whatever features each ball has, are likely to break off and form part of the new baby dust ball. That baby dust ball will have whatever features it inherited from its parents, plus any new features it acquires during its lifetime.

Colour vision and increased freedom of movement

The features that a dust ball is born with might undergo improvements during its lifetime. For example, one of the light sensitive particles might be jolted and deform, so that it becomes sensitive not just to light itself but a different wavelength of light. This alone, isn't that significant until, by chance, the dust ball rolls over another type of pebble. A spiky pebble that reacts to deformed light-sensitive particles. When a deformed light-sensitive particle reacts to the new wavelength of light, it pushes the spiky pebble out to the surface of the dust ball, changing the direction in which the dust ball is rolling. It so happens that the new wavelength of light is reflected by the walls at the edges of the piece of slate. The dust ball is now able to change direction rather than smashing into the walls and becoming damaged. The new feature is inherited because it's helpful to the dust ball and improves its chances of surviving and mating.

To be continued

4 comments

Fizzfan said...

So now I’m up to super balls that can avoid damage versus those rolling around like blind drunken Saturday night revellers.
They are going places.......world domination begins...... I might be getting ahead of myself......

News of the day...Trangender men are having babies. I had no idea it was happening.

Profound Familiarity said...

We're not quite at world domination yet but I will try to limit this series to ten or twelve posts or something because if it isn't boring now, it probably will be soon.

Do you have any idea how the transgender man became pregnant? I'm wondering if he fertilised himself or if somehow the... procreative ingredients of another male found their way into his womb.

Fizzfan said...

If you get dust ball fatigue I won’t blame you............as long as when it ends they all lived happily ever after.

Yes, if I’ve understood it correctly the ‘ingredients’ is just planted in their wombs. I think medical intervention has been given.
They just have to stop taking their testosterone.

Profound Familiarity said...

Cheers.