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If there were never any birds, would there be planes?

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peppermints

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As I was driving on the interstate yesterday, I was thinking about this.

It's pretty apparent that an airplane's design is based on observations of birds and how they work. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think I am.

Let's say that birds had never evolved. Do you think that man would have ever had the desire, without seeing them flying in the sky, to strive to do that themselves? I mean sure, there would still be insects, but I don't think they would strike us much curiosity or inspiration into people.

Or do you think that it was just a natural step in human progress that would have been discovered one way or another?
 
peppermints said:
As I was driving on the interstate yesterday, I was thinking about this.

It's pretty apparent that an airplane's design is based on observations of birds and how they work. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think I am.

Let's say that birds had never evolved. Do you think that man would have ever had the desire, without seeing them flying in the sky, to strive to do that themselves? I mean sure, there would still be insects, but I don't think they would strike us much curiosity or inspiration into people.

Or do you think that it was just a natural step in human progress that would have been discovered one way or another?
Click to expand...

They'd still be winged insects, bats and flying squirrels for inspiration.
 
one would wonder why there were no flying creatures like birds in the first place. It's possible that we'd still get ideas from flying bugs though.

That said, not every last one of our ideas is necessarily inspired by animals - if the laws of nature worked the same way as they do in our world, then eventually we would still learn to fly. The development might be delayed is all
 
peppermints said:
As I was driving on the interstate yesterday, I was thinking about this.

It's pretty apparent that an airplane's design is based on observations of birds and how they work. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think I am.

Let's say that birds had never evolved. Do you think that man would have ever had the desire, without seeing them flying in the sky, to strive to do that themselves? I mean sure, there would still be insects, but I don't think they would strike us much curiosity or inspiration into people.

Or do you think that it was just a natural step in human progress that would have been discovered one way or another?
Click to expand...

If there were never any fish, would man have ever been inspired to create submarines? (hint: yes)

I mean, not having a good living example hasn't really stopped us from trying to invent ludicrous things like time travel or teleportation. Man would have been inspired to fly one way or another, though flight may have taken a different direction like more emphasis on personal jetpacks, flying platforms (these were in testing in the 60s IIRC) or helicopters.
 
peppermints said:
It's pretty apparent that an airplane's design is based on observations of birds and how they work. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think I am.
Click to expand...

Not entirely correct. It's true that people did at first try to mimic birds way of flying. That is, strapping feathers onto their arms and jumping off of cliffs. But it never worked.

It wasn't until several broken bones later when people like Bernoulli started researching the principles of flight (lift, to be precise), rather than the principles of birds, that we seriously managed to get stuff up in the air at high speeds and stay there (barring inventions like baloons).

I think.

*Edit. Just finished ep27 of Gurren Lagann. Human imagination > rest.
 
Manmademan said:
If there were never any fish, would man have ever been inspired to create submarines? (hint: yes)

I mean, not having a good living example hasn't really stopped us from trying to invent ludicrous things like time travel or teleportation. Man would have been inspired to fly one way or another, though flight may have taken a different direction like more emphasis on personal jetpacks, flying platforms (these were in testing in the 60s IIRC) or helicopters.
Click to expand...

Flying submarines.
 
We all live in a flying submarine,
flying submarine, flying submarine,
We all live in a flying submarine,
flying submarine, flying submarine.

This is the Beatles hit song in a world with flying submarines.
 
Well we don't have an animal that goes to outer space but that hasn't stopped us. In fact ,hypotheticly speaking, we might of actually achieved flight faster if thier were no flying creatures as we wouldn't have wasted time on trying to create flapping wings...
 
Yeah, I think there would be planes. However, maybe they would have looked completely different to "our" planes, since we wouldn't be locked to/inspired by the way birds are designed.
 
Nander said:
Yeah, I think there would be planes. However, maybe they would have looked completely different to "our" planes, since we wouldn't be locked to/inspired by the way birds are designed.
Click to expand...

Who designed them birds?
 
Yes . . . . there still would be insects and bats showing how glorious flight is. The ability to fly is so useful that evolution stumbled upon it many different times.

Perhaps flight would have arrived a few years later, but it would have arrived eventually.
 
if there were no birds, there would be an overpopulation of insects and mountain goats

then insects would have their own insect white house and declare war on the mountain goats as they expanded towards the mountainous regions because of gross overpopulation, and with the advent of personal hygience in the insect community, their population exponentially increased to the point where the expansionist dictator of the United Insects of America find that the only places to expand to are the mountains

and so began the Greatest War of All Time -- Insect War I, followed by the sequel Insect War II which was against the Earth's atmosphere because the insects began to develop in such a way that they could fly through space if they only breeched through the atmosphere.
 
If there were never any birds, entire ecosystems would be radically different, and flight could possibly be more or less of a priority. In fact, it might be possible that we don't exist in this scenario.
 
Do you see anything in nature that resembles a car? a sybian? a computer?


usually things are invented in the pursuit of somethings. Means to an end.
 
Assuming everything the same (huge assumption, birds had incredible influence on the planet), yes there would be planes.

If there were no animals in the animal kingdom that were computers would there be PCs?
 
I think the question assumes that there are no flying animals. I think we would discover it but much later. Someone would stick their hand into a strong wind and notice the lift affect. Thats all it would take.
 
Submarines and planes are completely different stories...even without fish, there'd still be water. People would still be able to swim and they'd still wonder what was in the ocean. Without birds, or flying creatures, how would anyone know it was even possible to fly?
 
Zoramon089 said:
Submarines and planes are completely different stories...even without fish, there'd still be water. People would still be able to swim and they'd still wonder what was in the ocean. Without birds, or flying creatures, how would anyone know it was even possible to fly?
Click to expand...
What if people thought that entering blue water would kill them?
 
LinkAMN said:
What if people thought that entering blue water would kill them?
Click to expand...
Then the first person to try murdering someone by pushing them into blue water would've been sorely disappointed.
 
davepoobond said:
if there were no birds, there would be an overpopulation of insects and mountain goats

then insects would have their own insect white house and declare war on the mountain goats as they expanded towards the mountainous regions because of gross overpopulation, and with the advent of personal hygience in the insect community, their population exponentially increased to the point where the expansionist dictator of the United Insects of America find that the only places to expand to are the mountains

and so began the Greatest War of All Time -- Insect War I, followed by the sequel Insect War II which was against the Earth's atmosphere because the insects began to develop in such a way that they could fly through space if they only breeched through the atmosphere.
Click to expand...

This is pure comedy gold :lol
 
davepoobond said:
if there were no birds, there would be an overpopulation of insects and mountain goats

then insects would have their own insect white house and declare war on the mountain goats as they expanded towards the mountainous regions because of gross overpopulation, and with the advent of personal hygience in the insect community, their population exponentially increased to the point where the expansionist dictator of the United Insects of America find that the only places to expand to are the mountains

and so began the Greatest War of All Time -- Insect War I, followed by the sequel Insect War II which was against the Earth's atmosphere because the insects began to develop in such a way that they could fly through space if they only breeched through the atmosphere.
Click to expand...
But what about the COSMIC RAYS?
 
Remember in The Planet of the Apes when they were amazed by the paper airplane yet had semi-automatic rifles?


Yes I bet we would have airplanes and I bet they would've been invented shortly after the car. Sure humans theorized about flight but they never got anywhere until the birth of the industrial era. I think all of that technology would lead to the idea of cars in the air without birds for inspiration.
 
LinkAMN said:
Yeah, when pigs fly!

*Opens a bag of Flat Earth chips*
Click to expand...

I just got spamed with that damn commercial too. Two times in a row, change the channel there it is again. :lol
 
The world would have to have been extremely different for birds NOT to evolve. Humans as we know them probably wouldn't exist.

I mean, you're asking "what if humans never saw the last surviving dinosaurs on Earth?" What a boring and stupid world.
 
mac said:
Yes I bet we would have airplanes and I bet they would've been invented shortly after the car. Sure humans theorized about flight but they never got anywhere until the birth of the industrial era. I think all of that technology would lead to the idea of cars in the air without birds for inspiration.
Click to expand...
On a serious note I think people would've been inspired by the wind. If not to imitate it, then to ride it like the waves, so to speak.
 
Crushed said:
The world would have to have been extremely different for birds NOT to evolve. Humans as we know them probably wouldn't exist.

I mean, you're asking "what if humans never saw the last surviving dinosaurs on Earth?" What a boring and stupid world.
Click to expand...

Here's something: Would we later create birds ourselves with science?
 
Suburban Cowboy said:
why are there interstate highways in hawaii
Click to expand...

because its not fair for Hawaii to be screwed on getting Federal funding for highways just because they're an island in the middle of the ocean.

interstate highways are the only kind of highways that are funded by the Federal government.
 
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