I’ve been reading up a little and found that there is copper naturally occuring on the sea floor, but it exists in little nodules about 1-4 inches wide from what I’ve read.
So enough for a small Civ if we did it my way, which could make sense with the mantis-shrimp like appendages (and I’m sure there’s some scientific principle that wouldn’t let a much larger organism punch so hard and precisely without a bunch more muscle), however that would make supply chains much more difficult, as smaller organisms often have a much harder time traversing the same area as larger animals (because…they’re smaller), and with this idea some kind of tolerance for pressure change would have to be accounted for (as the nodules I read about are about 1000 meters below sea level on earth)
I think a few major points have been forgotten about over the course of this thread
Specifically, it seems like fire and the usage thereof is less of a basic fact of intelligence and more of a mere adaptation found in some animals. Considering this, it’s reasonable to say that, realistically, the discovery of metallurgy should be an issue for all societies, not just those that dwell in the sea
While obviously metallurgy will happen sooner in terrestrial animals, it still won’t be some foundation even there. There are also subsets of terrestriality that would suffer in this respect as much or even more than aquatics (take arboreal life, or life on certain floating features)
In conclusion, lack of metal is not an issue unique to underwater civilizations
While I would agree… this doesn’t seem to be a problem specifically with this discussion, considering that this is just discussing how to make it possible for underwater Civs. It isn’t about why all other civs can smelt and underwater ones haven’t been shown to be able to, just that it is known that this would definitely be a problem for underwater civs without a doubt and this is towards finding a solution for that
So yes, you may be right, but that isn’t a problem with this thread per se nor does it get us closer to solving the issue of smelting for underwater civs
But there is no independant issue of smelting for underwater civs, in the same sense that there is no independant issue of space travel for creatures with spleens. It’s a generic problem, with a generic solution. And I see no reason why such a generic solution would have to be exclusive to land
Why? What is the problem? If anything, aquatic civilizations have fewer issues, as they would likely have no emotional issues regarding metallurgy, unlike terrestrial animals that will naturally fear flames
Deathwake
(i nuked zenzone and will never let him forget it)
902
you know what im going to stop trying to respond to you. as such i have nothing to say.
So if it is learned, then it can also not yet be known, and there’s no reason why aquatic individuals would learn that fire is bad. But there is a very big reason why terrestrials would learn such a thing
And yet none of this is relevant to smelting or shaping metal in underwater civilizations.
Dude, I get your points, but that’s not the point of this thread. If you want to discuss this, make a new thread and stop clogging up this one with irrelevant posts
If anything wouldn’t they be worse? They wouldn’t know the dangers of playing with fire, and so would be less cautious, much more likely to damage themselves or whatever apparatus they use to smelt
I think humans are very afraid of nuclear reactors today if you can’t tell
Just look at how many protests there are and complete ignorance on how safe it is. There is not enough research into nuclear energy