 | In Response To: Re: Really tough Marathon riddle (Steve Levinson)
Wow I really opened up a Pandora's box here. I love these kind of discussions, but I normally never take part in them. I understand every word you say, but I can't come up with those words on my own. I'll let you both know that I agree with you, except for the part about being sentient. We can't predict what other sentient beings might be like, since we have only ourselves for comparison. Saying that a sentient being MUST have eyes is a fallacy, since of course even blind people are sentient. Obviously being equipped for the environment you live in is not a requirement for sentience, since us humans are carnivorous(at least in part) but have no sharp teeth, no claws, cannot run fast, have slow reflexes, whatever. We also have no fur to keep us warm. The only thing that sentient beings require to live is the capacity to survive without being given their own equipment, which means they must create it themselves. With the Phfor, they are skinny and light, and they know it, so they created armor and weapons for themselves, and then it went on from there. Same with humans. I'd imagine that creatures who are blind are more likely to be sentient than beings who aren't, because they'd have to come up with a way to survive without seeing. Actually, those kind of creatures would probably be eradicated before they even began to develop, but you never know.
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