Science Memes

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Optimisation is a Slow Process (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It does? Look at your arms when you're cold, you'll see all your tiny hairs are standing to help prevent the body from losing too much heat.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's either cold enough that I'm gonna die or it's not. Those tiny hairs aren't going to save me in a situation where it would matter.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

"It's either cold enough that I'm gonna die or it's not. Not sitting on the cold floor isn't going to save me in a situation where it would matter."

Until you remember that your body needs energy to heat your body, and needs less energy when you lose less, having more spare energy for other things like your immune system.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yes but how much heat are those hairs actually saving? In real terms I doubt it's a number that's meaningful at all. Like if you had 2 clones and one had their hair shaved and one didn't, I'm not convinced you could even measure the difference without super sensitive tools and even then it would be a fraction of a degree.

I also doubt there's any situation where, all else being equal, one would survive and one wouldn't purely on the basis of having those hairs.