A curious thought...

[Irukanji]

Suppose, for this instance, that a baby is born. Now, this baby is allowed to grow as a normal baby until it is capable of crawling, at which time it is only permitted to play in a room covered in velcro. Now, place gloves/boots on the baby made from the opposite velcro stuff.

If the baby is taught normally and only subjected to this room with velcro until the mechanical strength of the velcro can no longer hold him, will he believe there is only one dimension we can walk on? Or will he believe he can walk on the roof and the walls? Will his brain try to compensate for his sideways or upside downwardness to prevent that strange feeling you get when you're upside down or sideways?

I'm kind of stoned(lol), so this might make zero sense to you. I've probably left some information out that was critical to the explanation but whatever

 

[PhoenixRising]

Well, let's find a baby and try it Time for some science!!

I think this is an interesting idea. The equilibrium would likely adapt to the child's perception of what "normal" balance is. I don't know that the sensation of being upside down would completely cease, but the child probably wouldn't feel uncomfortable with it. One thing that probably wouldn't change is the ability of the vascular system to compensate to being completely upside down. For instance, if the child was crawling down a wall with their head towards the ground, the brain would experience an influx of blood and the pressure could go up significantly enough to cause syncope. It is possible that, given enough times experiencing this, the vascular system would strengthen to better cope with the situation. The way the vascular system is structured is adapted to being in an upright position, so it would take many years of evolution for us to be able to exist as an upside down oriented species.

 

[Irukanji]

Well, let's find a baby and try it Time for some science!!

I was thinking the same thing, except I'm not sure how tolerated experimenting on living humans with the potential for long-term harm will be taken lol

I think this is an interesting idea. The equilibrium would likely adapt to the child's perception of what "normal" balance is. I don't know that the sensation of being upside down would completely cease, but the child probably wouldn't feel uncomfortable with it. One thing that probably wouldn't change is the ability of the vascular system to compensate to being completely upside down. For instance, if the child was crawling down a wall with their head towards the ground, the brain would experience an influx of blood and the pressure could go up significantly enough to cause syncope. It is possible that, given enough times experiencing this, the vascular system would strengthen to better cope with the situation. The way the vascular system is structured is adapted to being in an upright position, so it would take many years of evolution for us to be able to exist as an upside down oriented species.

Holy shit, its like you read my mind albeit in a much more elaborate way. As you said, perhaps he could overcome the mental reaction to "oh shit I'm upside down/walking on the walls". Perhaps it would allow him unparalleled agility in the normal worlds by always being able to control what his body is doing regardless of what the world happens to be doing.

Although it could result in a weirdly deformed body, due to the changed stresses imposed on his body. I'd anticipate narrowing of the arteries heading to the head, to reduce the pressure but an enlarged Aorta and inferior/superior Vena Cavas to accommodate a faster heart rate to compensate for the reduced blood flow to the brain and increased demands from the legs and abdomen to stay on the walls/roof, assuming the test subject was "persuaded" to remain on the walls for 25% of his day.

I'd also predict he lives a much shorter life span, perhaps only 35-40 years, due to the increased stress on his bodies system and the large amount of waste generated by his muscles exertion.(think kidney and liver failure)

Only way to see what will happen is to get a baby and some velcro, and chuck them on the wall and hope they don't turn out mute or incapable of transferring their knowledge in a written/signed form. Unfortunately we'll need to kill the child after the experiment is conducted, so we can observe the changes to their anatomy. Unless we just train up some replacements so when we die they can hang around to autopsy his body when it dies. Efficiency vs Emotions, in this case.

 

[Jennywocky]

Suppose, for this instance, that a baby is born. Now, this baby is allowed to grow as a normal baby until it is capable of crawling, at which time it is only permitted to play in a room covered in velcro. Now, place gloves/boots on the baby made from the opposite velcro stuff.

If the baby is taught normally and only subjected to this room with velcro until the mechanical strength of the velcro can no longer hold him, will he believe there is only one dimension we can walk on? Or will he believe he can walk on the roof and the walls? Will his brain try to compensate for his sideways or upside downwardness to prevent that strange feeling you get when you're upside down or sideways?

I'm kind of stoned(lol), so this might make zero sense to you. I've probably left some information out that was critical to the explanation but whatever

Getting stoned might be bad for your brain; but you have my gold star of approval on this entirely crazy scenario, I think it's hilarious. I'll be thinking about this and running some mental models all afternoon.

 

[SpaceYeti]

I would guess that the baby would presume it could walk on the walls and ceiling, since it never experienced the inability to, though I'm sure he will still recognize gravity and which way is down. He may develop a resistance or immunity to vertigo (that feeling), but I'm pretty sure he'll figure out that it has something to do with the gloves and boots, since those are the only parts that stick.

 

[PhoenixRising]

@Irukanji That's because I can read your mind... I'm doing it right now... hmm, fishsticks, batman and, hey now, that was a dirty thought

hehe

 

[walfin]

Go buy a chimp and try it on him/her first...

 

[Vladimir]

Lol thanks for the great idea. Made my hour. Seriously =]

 

[Cognisant]

A microgravity experiment would be interesting, either the child would develop a highly acute sense of orientation that can pick up on microgravity, perhaps resulting in an uncanny 6th sense for the gravitational fields of large objects around him/her (like the location of the moon or another spacecraft passing nearby) and would probably freak out on the Earth's surface, or the accelerometer sense will become acute in which case this child could perform mind bending three dimensional acrobatics but again would be freaked out on Earth by wind, he/she would be incredibly aware of every little deviation from balance caused by air currents.

 

[Cognisant]

Gyroscopic kid on Earth: "It's huge, so huge, how can you stand the awareness of this massive great thing underneath you, I feel like it's swallowing me up, like I'm falling and I can't stop the feeling it even with my feet on the ground."

Accelerometer kid on Earth: "Aaaaaaah the universe keeps moving."

 

[lord methous]

The one problem with all this is Velcro would not be enough to hold up a baby so a something better would be needed to perform such an experiment. However their is no way you would do it and not get in trouble for humans rights reasons.

 

[Irukanji]

The one problem with all this is Velcro would not be enough to hold up a baby so a something better would be needed to perform such an experiment. However their is no way you would do it and not get in trouble for humans rights reasons.

Velcro was the appropriate analogy to "sticky stuff which isn't so sticky but sticky enough for holding a toddler to the roof with"

 

[lord methous]

Velcro was the appropriate analogy to "sticky stuff which isn't so sticky but sticky enough for holding a toddler to the roof with"

I do not know what that would be as it would seem if it could hold a toddler to a roof it would be too strong for a toddler. Toddlers are not that light too have a material that can hold them up like that seems stronger then the strength of a toddler. Now I can't say that I have much experiences so I could be wrong but I doubt it.

 

[pjoa09]

I don't think velcro will allow him to walk on walls in the first place.