"Tim Tyler"  wrote in message
news:cl65t3$b8r$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Country Loon  wrote or
quoted:
> > "Catherine Woodgold"  wrote
in message
> > > "Country Loon" (fitlikemin{at}mearns.fairmers.co.uk)
writes:
>
> > > > I doubt a water based lifeform could develop much
technology as the
> > > > water would get in the way! You could not develop
electronics for
> > > > instance under water - you need a dry environment.
> > >
> > > Somewhere in another galaxy there may be an underwater
> > > creature saying "I doubt a land based lifeform could
develop
> > > much technology, as the air would get in the way!  You
could
> > > not develop chemistry, for instance, in the air -- you
need
> > > a wet environment."
> >
> > That's true and I had though that maybe a sea born life
could foresee the
> > need for technologies that are dry but it sure would
make things hard in the
> > electrical world and they would still need manipulators
of some sort.
>
> Underwater electronics seems like a simple enough
proposition.  All you
> need is insulators.  Underwater creatures seem to have
plenty of those
> available to them - in the form of materials such as fats.
>
> The nervous system in undersea creatures works largely on
electrical
> impulses - it seems that evolution cracked the "underwater
electronics"
> problems long ago.
>
> As far as manipulators go - check out an octopus ;-)

Yes, the best example of underwater "electronics" being the
electric eel, electric rays (order Torpediniformes,) and
electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus.) Give any of
these the equivalent of functional arms and hands, and we
could have a plethora of Edisons.

I would be more concerned with the lack of a variety of
building materials under oceans something like ours,
structurally. Even this could be argued though--there
certainly could be underwater (or under solvent)
plants/tree-type materials, and maybe metals could be
processed depending on availability and exact composition of
ocean.               ...tonyC

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