(November 7, 2008 at 10:03 am)allan175 Wrote: No reason at all why there couldn't be tripedal aliens. Just because it doesn't make sense engineering-wise (blind spots, breathing/eating through the same orifice etc), doesn't mean it couldn't evolve into a solution to an environmental problem. As long as it does the job and gives even a tiny advantage over the competition it'll be used.
That the point I am trying to make ... just about any reasonably complex animal (and presumably plant) can be justified from an engineering standpoint and that is because it offers an evolutionary advantage ... I've no idea if tripetal (tripodal?) makes sense or not, all I'm saying is that bipedal does and, given the current view that flowing water, oxygen, more-or-less earth like gravity, sun etc. etc. are likely to be required ()in other words a more-or-less earth-like climate) then my money would be on other life-forms evolving to a bipedal type architecture.
(November 7, 2008 at 10:03 am)allan175 Wrote: There is no one solution for walking about, see all the various forms available on the Earth!
True but the most advanced are bipedal ... maybe that's luck, maybe it ain't but it seems to me that evolution is driven by anything other than "luck" ... in other words there's a good reason why we are the way we are (and I ain't talking intelligent design).
Kyu
