Geekswipe Team

On Earth, code is just a human abstraction built on our materials and physics. It’s still about representing, storing, and manipulating information with reliable, repeatable calculations. We have semiconductors and logic gates made from silicon on Earth because it is abundant, stable, and tunable.

There are many possibilities for alien superheavy elements (within the limits of physics). They could build transformers from elements that can exploit quantum states in multidimensional states, like using qudits.

Memory could be out of stable elements, exploiting the nuclear spin states compared to our electron-level storage.
Even the logic would be based on vibrational frequencies rather than 1s and 0s.

The possibilities are endless. Even if we witness it we might not even understand it. Like how ants cannot understand how our laptop works.

Copper is way more conductive than a human body, you are correct. So yes, when lightning strikes a grounded copper rod, most of that raw voltage will take the easier path, which is straight down the metal into the earth. But lightning isn’t a tidy, single-lane current. It’s a chaotic, high-energy burst that doesn’t strictly obey “least resistive path” rules. If you’re holding that rod, uninsulated, with your feet on the ground, you’re now part of the grounding system. Some of that current will branch through you, because your body offers a parallel path to ground.

Even a small fraction of a lightning bolt (we’re talking tens of thousands of amps) is enough to stop your heart, burn your skin from the inside out, or fry your nervous system. Holding a grounded lightning rod during a strike is basically volunteering to be a secondary lightning conductor.

And to estimate how much current flows through you, you’d model it like a parallel circuit. one path through the copper rod (very low resistance), one through your body (much higher resistance, but not infinite). Say the rod has ~ 0.001 ohms of resistance and your body ~ 1,000 ohms, almost all current flows through the rod. But with a lightning strike pushing up to 100,000 amps, even 0.01% through you is 10 amps — more than enough to kill.

The exact split depends on contact resistance, moisture, and how well you’re grounded, but in lightning physics, “a little” (over 0.1 A) is lethal.

Hi Jon,

An interesting question. Not sure about the application of this, but you can achieve traceability by adding a UV luminescent dye to the paint. As it absorbs and emits UV, you can easily trace it with a simple UV lamp. If you want to track rubber and are sure that no other metal is present, you can add some magnetic particles into it and trace it with a magnet.

Yes, phosphate-buffered saline can clean and dilute cells. It’s an isotonic solution, meaning it has the same osmotic pressure as the cells and it doesn’t harm them. It’s a very common solution used in cell culture and biological experiments.

There’s no definitive answer to this. The common explanation is that any out-of-the-world or altered perception of reality is due to hallucinations induced by enhanced brain chemistry while encountering a near-death experience.

Explaining the source or rationale behind the hallucination is even more complex as they are influenced by a lot of physiological and psychological factors, including cultural exposure, memories, trauma, stress, preconceived spiritual and social beliefs and expectations about death, all causing a rush of heightened brain activity that creates neural pathways, giving a unique experience for every individual.

Welcome to Geekswipe, @wdj92.

Mutations in viruses and bacteria don’t necessarily create a new disease. In some cases, it’s just the intensity of a disease that changes. And of course, mutations would altogether create a new set of symptoms for a significantly different disease and the immune responses will vary. So if that’s the case, then it can be considered as a ‘new disease’ caused by the same virus or bacteria.