Problems with Protoss Physiology - Page 8

On November 08 2007 01:44 Klockan3 wrote:
Doubble post, see next page.

On November 08 2007 09:44 jtan wrote:

makes about as much sense as humans flying through space by constantly farting

On November 09 2007 07:33 YvoRoK wrote:
Protoss aren't a product of evolution, though, they're the direct creation of the Xel'Naga.
Also, I thought they got their energy from psionic sources, like additional pylons.

On November 08 2007 13:11 Tiptup wrote:
Apparently the idea of the Protoss eating light was first inserted into a StarCraft novel called First Born? I don't know since never liked the idea of reading a book based on StarCraft: the sci-fi world in StarCraft was made to enhance a game and not the other way around.


Anyways, I looked up the energy requirements of the brain and, while not huge, they're not exactly small either. If you could maintain deep thought for 24 hours straight, you'd burn more energy than is recommended for the entire human body to eat in a day and the Protoss are all about using lots of mental power, so . . . .

On November 07 2007 11:31 purekorea wrote:
If im not mistaken Dark Templar are called that because they strayed from the "normal Protoss" path of life and not cause they cloak.

And the cloaking is because they bend the lightwaves around them not that they are transparent.

On November 05 2007 03:44 Jyvblamo wrote:
I'm really enjoying all the intelligent discussion this thread is generating.
It's quite a breath of fresh air. :D



1. Ah, but keep in mind, as already mentioned before, only light in the visible spectrum is suitable for absorption by biological materials. Why doesn't the human eye (and indeed the eyes of most other animals) see ultraviolet? Because UV radiation is far too damaging to organic molecules.

2. According to all existing SC canon, the Xel-Naga did not create the Protoss race. They maybe have seeded life on Aiur (Though the back-story is ambiguous on this), but they did not directly manipulate the evolution of the Protoss race until after the Protoss had developed into...


Edit:

Flowering plants do not derive their energy from their flowers, they have green leaves that photosynthesize for them. The different pigments in the flowers are for attracting pollinating animals.
Even so, that is beside the point since all photosynthesizing organisms on Earth (correct me if I'm wrong) use light from the visible spectrum to power the light-dependent reactions in photosynthesis.

On November 09 2007 07:45 Jyvblamo wrote:


This has been refuted so many times in this thread that it's not even funny.

On November 07 2007 23:26 Tiptup wrote:
According to wikipedia, about half the energy provided by sunlight is in the visible part of the EM spectrum. The other almost-half of the energy is below that in the infrared part of the spectrum. UV light is only the very small portion that's left over. A few scant UV photons are going to power a physical form as impressive as a Protoss? We generally don't bother with solar panels that collect energy in UV range because there simply isn't enough energy there to justify the expense. Plants know where it's at.

To emit additional, high energy light, Aiur's star would have to be much hotter and would probably start killing off most life forms on Aiur's surface (I would guess). That's even assuming the Protoss can absorb UV light in the first place, which is so remote that it defeats Blizzard specifying that the Protoss can live off sunlight in the first place.


Also, I'm no expert on biology, chemistry and certainly not biochemistry, but "higher" life forms tend to require far more energy in comparison to "lower" life forms. They're more complex and are greater concentrations of matter and energy. Higher life forms live by consuming lower life forms. This leaves human beings with a very large energy requirements in comparison to the physical acts we perform. Protoss, on the other hand, would be even more complex considering their additional functions (like psionics and light absorption) as well as their greater intelligence, durability, strength, speed. For me to believe that it can survive on a small fraction of what a human survives upon doesn't make sense to me.

On November 20 2007 17:27 liosama wrote:
I really feel that this argument (although interesting it being pointed out in the first place) is getting no where.

On November 05 2007 02:00 Jyvblamo wrote:
In a recent SC2 Blizzard Q&A batch, there was an interesting point raised on the subject of how the Protoss obtain their nourishment.

Here's the direct quote:


This interesting new fact raises several problems (however hypothetical) about Protoss physiology.

By having Protoss obtaining their energy from the sun, we can assume that they mean the Protoss absorb energy from photons on the molecular level, and convert that electromagnetic radiation energy into chemical energy stored in chemical bonds which they later break to release the stored energy. A key consequence of absorbing energy from light is that you change the wavelength of the reflected light, resulting in a change in the colour of the reflected light.

In photosynthetic organisms on Earth, the dominant pigment used to absorb energy from light is chlorophyll, which absorbs most wavelengths of visible light except green, resulting in a green colour.

However, it seems impossible for this mechanism to work since Protoss skin is pale-ish, meaning that they reflect nearly all wavelengths of light and do not absorb substantial amounts of energy from light.

Also, another incongruous issue raised by making Protoss photosynthetic is that it means that they are autotrophs; organisms that derive energy directly from the abiotic environment and not from other organisms.

Why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, autotrophs are subject to different evolutionary pressures than herotrophs (On Earth, heterotrophs are just about everything except for chemoautotrophic archaebacteria {or whatever their name is nowadays} and photosynthetic organisms).

Autotrophs tend to be non-motile because they do not need to move around to find sources of energy (it's always shining down upon them or streaming out of undersea vents), and they certainly don't have to hunt down their meal (except for certain insectivore plants, but I digress...). Plants on our world do not move around or think or whatever because natural selection does not favor autotrophs that do so.

So, evolutionarily speaking, it does not make sense to have an autotrophic Protoss. All the traits of the Protoss suggest a predatory ancestry, like their communal hierarchy, their manipulative hands, their bipedal stance, etc.

On the other hand, there are already photosynthetic organisms on Aiur. The jungles are full of green 'plants' that quite resemble our own lethargic and stationary plants on Earth. Those plants have no use for pale skin, hands, brains, psionic storms, and so on.

Even the lore of the Starcraft universe contradicts the idea that Protoss could be autotrophic.


There you have it, right from the original grail of SC's back-story itself. The Protoss were hunters, not some plant or whatever.

So, anyways, I hope that my long boring post will generate some discussion, and hopefully all the replies won't be "lol iz just a game blimey!1".

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On June 25 2015 01:57 Seeker wrote:
WTF with this necro?