Speaker For The Diodes - March 27th, 2008

04:22 am - An Odd Cross-Sensory Perception (and designing alien races)

Driving with badly misaligned mirrors feels like playing dodgeball standing on one foot.

I haven't gotten a chance to try reattaching the rear-view mirror correctly yet, so it's still stuck on with gaffer's tape for now. And the tape had gotten unstuck sometime in the last day or two while it was parked, so before rehearsal tonight I had to re-hang the mirror. Alas, shortly after I started moving, it shifted, presenting me with the unwelcome opportunity to make the observation above. (The left side-view mirror also has problems and cannot be adjusted, so it's useable but not aimed very conveniently for me.) The odd thing is that it didn't feel like having my vision restricted, which is what it was; it felt like being a little off-balance with mobility restricted, while the direction of threat kept changing.

I re-taped it yet again before driving home, of course. Not perfectly, but aimed well enough to not feel like I was standing on one leg.

But having figured out what the sensation resembled, on the way south I started designing a race of one-legged aliens in my head. First I figured they would have really muscular ankles, to provide enough strength to turn the rest of the body quickly while retaining balance (and also to absorb the shocks of their locomotion, perhaps, though a lot of that can be handled higher up in the leg, and even though we bipeds don't generate those levels of forces when we walk, we generate similar forces when we run, which the ankles we've got handle well enough ... so the main reason I'm thinking of thick ankles for monopeds is for torque when turning in place (or stopping a turn once it's started)). Then I questioned my assumption that they'd need to be able to turn in place quickly. For any creature built on lines similar to ours, with arms that have greater functionality working in front of the body and sense organs oriented forward, the need to be able to turn quickly in place seems obvious enough -- just place a foe capable of circling, or multiple foes, in the scene, and that becomes clear -- but what if the body plan were rotationally symmetrical? A ring of eyes around the head, multiple arms arranged around the body and jointed in such a way as to not have differences in "forward" and "rearward" flexibility and strength, no meaningful sense of ventral and dorsal ... would such an animal no longer need to be able to turn in place quickly?

So then I had two different races of one-legged aliens in my head.

I got distracted from hunting / predator-avoidance / combat tactics to perceptual issues -- what the round-race's visual system would be like, how the world -- especially moving objects -- would look to them. Then I got to my exit and had to switch from highway driving mode to traffic lights and narrower lanes, and filed these thoughts away to mention later (i.e. now).

Until I got home and started to type this, I didn't think of existing critters, especially one-footed ones, that can't turn in place easily -- such as snails (and, I presume, clams, though I've never watched a clam move so I don't know how quickly it can turn). Armour helps there ... as does acceptance of one's position very low on the food chain. Also, some quadrupeds can't turn very quickly, though I suppose it all depends on how you define "quickly": some turtles are slow-turning on land, at least by human standards. (But, in case the situation ever arises, do not assume that snapping turtles are slow enough to be safe just because you have mammal reflexes and biped mobility. If you're not already well acquainted with their capabilities and limitations, surprise -- possibly a rather painful surprise -- is likely. Once you know what they can and can't do, you've got a huge advantage, but don't start your first encounter with one assuming that you already know which angles are safe.) Again, in the case of turtles, armour is a factor in the success of the ... [genus? order? class? *checks Wikipedia*] ... order.

So now I'm thinking about legged locomotion in general, and turning ability (and flexibility, and how the two are traded off or combined), and tactics; how biped locomotion trades stability for rapid turning (have you ever considered just how easy it is to spin in place[*] -- but how much more complicated that is with four legs or six?) but cats manage to spin in place awfully damned quickly (God's fuzzy little killing machines, the darlings), and have gotten off the subject of sfnal one-legged aliens for now. Which is probably just as well, since it's time I tried to indulge in that practice I don't seem to be very good at lately: sleeping. And the five-eyed, multi-armed, one-legged creatures I was picturing earlier would make for some rather odd dreams. (I imagine most humans would find conversation with one rather disconcerting, given how we interpret body position and direction of gaze as conversational cues.)

[*] Do most other people spend any time thinking about the mechanics of such things, noticing how they work? Do dancers[**] notice these things more than other people? I think it's pretty cool how a half-spin works without lifting either foot (well, you lift your heels but the balls of the feet stay on the ground), and how a full spin winds up only being one "step" so it can fit in a lot of places musically.

[**] For the folks who don't know me in person: no, I'm not a dancer. But I did have to analyze my spin move to try to explain the mechanics of it to a bandmate. Hmm. I guess sword fighters probably think about footwork too. Athletes in general? When I was playing soccer we didn't analyze footwork much except for the last two steps before a kick, but that was mostly at the high school level (and a little intramural competition at university).

Argh. Now I'm thinking about what is and isn't "obvious" about various types of movements, wondering what's obvious to other people, and considering the relationship between the body coordination skills needed for playing a drum kit and for playing in a marching band. Stop, brain! Rest of body wants sleeeeeeep!

05:34 am - QotD

"Being experienced as well as highly trained is knowing not to dance with the fuckup fairy when you don't have to." -- cerebrate, 2007-03-30

07:19 pm - Everywhere I Turn, There's Ray Or Dave

I got to rehearsal late yesterday (again *sigh*) and everyone was in the middle of working out an arrangement for a song a member of the band had written. The theme of the lyrics (not so much the phrasing as the topic) reminded me of a certain well respected man about town, doing the best things so conservatively.

Then we rehearsed a Stephen Foster song that we'd poked at a bit several years ago and then set aside for some reason, and the lyrics of that reminded me of my own current financial situation (which is, of course, exacerbated by the price of gas (and once I had two songs from the same album in my head, most of the rest of the album snuck in behind them -- though somehow I doubt one particular track would play so well in the rest of the world nowadays)).

And after I got home I was going through browser tabs that have been open for weeks, and saw where somebody had linked to an MP3 of "Apeman", and I didn't even get around to listening to the MP3 because just seeing the title is enough to make me start hearing it in my head (though the drum track is a little indistinct in the version in my head, so I ought to go listen to the recording again to refresh the brain copy, I suppose). "In man's evolution he has created the cities and the motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance And I'd be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle"

So today my head is full of Davieses.

But it's probably no surprise to any of my friends that I have a Kinksy mind.