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Old 10-28-2010, 06:27 AM   #21
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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As previously mentioned, coconut crabs, <snip> live entirely on line in adulthood
So that's where net trolls come from!

(Sorry, couldn't resist xD)
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Old 10-28-2010, 06:33 AM   #22
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

Don't large brains require a lot of protein? It would seem to me that weaving webs out of protein while also growing big brains is rather problematic.
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Old 10-28-2010, 06:42 AM   #23
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Originally Posted by Trachmyr View Post
Forgive me, but using those numbers I get something more akin to 1/50th a pound, or about 0.3 ounces.
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Originally Posted by teviet View Post
No, that's 0.002oz silk per oz of spider, not per each 0.035oz spider. So a 9-pound spider is only a factor of 144 scale-up, giving us about 0.3oz of silk from the 9lb spider.
You are of course both right, thanks.

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Originally Posted by teviet View Post
The article said they could be re-milked every week, so divide everything by 7 to get a daily rate. The 9lb spider could produce 0.04oz of silk per day, or about 1/500 of a pound per day.

Spiders can spin silk at a much higher rate each day as they build their webs, but I think they usually eat their webs when they dismantle them so as to reuse the protein. Actually synthesizing the silk protein goes much slower.
Sounds pretty reasonable.

So we could say that a 9 lbs spider could carry up to 1/50th of a pound of silk protein as some sort of Silk Pool (EP), with regeneration of silk protein at 1/500th per day from eating normal proteins, or 1/50th per day if it can cannibalize old silk thread.
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Old 10-28-2010, 06:58 AM   #24
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

Everything Bruno said. Also:
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Current Earth conditions have no more gravity than the conditions under which we supported nine foot long milipedes...
Thank you for tonight's nightmares.
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Old 10-28-2010, 08:18 AM   #25
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Don't large brains require a lot of protein? It would seem to me that weaving webs out of protein while also growing big brains is rather problematic.
So if these sapient spiders ate a lot of BRAINS, they'd have all the protein they need?

That's...really horrifying.
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Old 10-28-2010, 08:28 AM   #26
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Originally Posted by Vardukson View Post
So if these sapient spiders ate a lot of BRAINS, they'd have all the protein they need?

That's...really horrifying.
On the other hand, at 9 lbs they are too big to crawl into creatures' ears and start eating their brain while they're still alive, so as adults they'll have to kill creatures and crack open their skulls in order to get the right proteins.


Though for adolescents I suppose one of the ways to do this could be for the mother spider to insert eggs into a living creature's brain so that when the little spiders hatch they have enough protein available for their development.
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Old 10-28-2010, 10:20 AM   #27
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Originally Posted by seasong View Post
Everything Bruno said. Also:

Thank you for tonight's nightmares.
If it helps any, they were probably just as vegetarian/detritus-eating as todays milipedes so as long as you aren't looking like a nice tasty pile of leaf mould you're probably safe.

Yesterday I had to escort outside a house centipede the size of my thumb. Turns out I'm the only person in the company who isn't freaked out by them, and of course they're coming inside this time of year for the winter. It's going to be a long six months for me and the centipedes I think.

To quote the guy two cubes down after arriving to 'deal' with the centipede "You said it was a big bug, not a monster!"
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Old 10-28-2010, 10:21 AM   #28
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha View Post
On the other hand, at 9 lbs they are too big to crawl into creatures' ears and start eating their brain while they're still alive, so as adults they'll have to kill creatures and crack open their skulls in order to get the right proteins.
Or scavenge their bodies - coconut crabs do scavenge from carcases from time to time, and are quite capable of cracking open decaying bones for the tasty goodness inside.

The latest word on the whereabouts of Amelia Eirhart, by the way, is suspected to be "in the burrows and tummies of a hell of a lot of land crabs".
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Old 10-28-2010, 10:25 AM   #29
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Or scavenge their bodies - coconut crabs do scavenge from carcases from time to time, and are quite capable of cracking open decaying bones for the tasty goodness inside.

The latest word on the whereabouts of Amelia Eirhart, by the way, is suspected to be "in the burrows and tummies of a hell of a lot of land crabs".
Didn't we start off scavenging marrow from predator kills?

Oh, and thanks Ze for the brain-eating egg-laying head-spiders. I'm sure I'll sleep like a babe tonight.
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Old 10-28-2010, 10:28 AM   #30
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Default Re: Would a 9 lb sapient spider producing 1/10 lb of silk a day suspend your disbelie

There is at least one vegetarian spider, so that isn't a realism stumbling block.
1/500 lb per day and scaling down cost of living for status -1 by 1/9 results in the silk costing $500 per pound.
Too bad Low Tech armor only gives a CF rather than breaking it down into materials and labor costs.
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