Giant insects?

in the FAQ of www.thiaoouba.com, you say that no one has found anything wrong in your book, but i beleive i have found something questionable. You say that there were cockroaches and ants on one of the planets that had grown to immeasurable sizes, yet it is impossible for an cockroach or an ant to grow more than half an inch thick. This is because the way in which insects get oxygen into their body is through their skin, but it is impossible for oxygen to move further than an inch through their body. This means that the large insects would not be able to survive and would die within a minute or two of growing over an inch thick. Prove me wrong tom

Sam

Your question proves that you haven't read the book. Please read it carefully 3 times and try to verify your "beleifs" before trying to clutter this Forum.

The book is not mine, but clearly explains the reason for insect gigantism and even summarizes the post-mortem analysis of their bodies. Ants and coakroches on Aremo X3 developed lungs as a result of radiation-induced mutation. Anyone competent will tell you what would happen if insects developed lungs. Can you guess why they haven't done it here so far?

Atomic radiation interferes with the information transfer within living organisms and hence disturbs their functions, including cell growth.

Tom

Radiation-induced random mutation CAN NOT produce functional lungs in such a short time.

Meedan

Of course. Is "random mutations" all you can imagine?

Have you ever considered appearance of an EYE as a result of "random mutations"? Even if you assume that a new mutation occurs every 60 seconds, this Universe (not to mention our planet) is not old enough to allow for sufficient number of combinations to ensure a reasonable probability. The probability of an eye apearing as a result of "random mutations" is similar to that of the "house building itself" - it is near zero. Everything else is infinite number of times more probable.

Why don't you try to consider processes other than "random mutations"? When a body of living organism grows from a single cell, organs do not develop in it as a result of "random mutations". There is a systematic and intelligent self-correcting information control system in place. When you disturb parameters of this self-correcting system sufficiently - it may grow organs that is not supposed to.

When a good programmer develops a complex information processing system (life), one of the key things he does is "encapsulating" functions that repeat. Almost universally, such functions accept "run-time" parameters, including "self-disabling" parameters. In a good system, such functions cannot be altered during run-time, or by incompetent operator (a creature itself), but their "run-time" parameters can.

Don't you find it intriguing that all living creatures have essentially the same functions (complex sensors, digestive system, waste disposal system, self-repair system, muscles and motion control system etc., etc..) suppressed or developed to a certain degree?

Tom