[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles

[Spike]

Here are some of riddles and unsolved mysteries from science that are
very curious indeed:

1. How do homing pigeons and other migratory birds unerringly find their
way home? Do they have some special sensory organs to detect the earth's
magnetic field? If so why haven't we found it and characterized it yet?
If we do find out the mechanism, can we transhumans augment ourselves to
have it to, thereby eliminating the need to "litter" earth's orbit with
GPS satellites? 

 

GPS sats are waaaay up there.  No problem with litter there.  Good
chance there

never will be.  Migratory birds' homing systems have end-game guidance,
so that

their internal homing organs are not accurate enough to do cool things
like guide

self-driving cars.

 

4. How can sperm whales hold their breath for half an hour at a time,
descend into the abyss, and have fights to the death with giant squid
and then surface without getting the bends or nitrogen narcosis? We
can't do that even with all our fancy diving gear unless we mix helium
with our air supply and spend hours depressurizing... or can we? 

 

Whale's joints are different from ours.  Mixing helium with the air
supply

is a perfectly appropriate technology, and it obviates depressuring.  We
have

the technology, what's the problem?

 

5. How can some really bright people claim to understand the universe so
completely that there is nothing eerie, anomolous, or mysterious about
it yet still manage to misplace their car keys. ;)

 

They neglected to affix radio frequency identification tags to their key
rings.  Or

they had insufficient technology in that they did not purchase a car
with

keyless entry and keyless start.  Why are we still building cars that
need keys?

spike

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