D&D General Introducing a Scientific Mindset to Dungeons and Dragons

[Yaarel]

No, the point is, real world science does not work. There is absolutely no way you could create an owlbear using real world science. There is no way a dragon can fly and breathe fire using real world science. If you invent "alternative science" such as Biomancy, that's magic. You can try and dress it up using scientific-style language, but it's still magic.

A bear with feathers and a beak?

That seems the easiest concept for science to achieve in reallife.


Dragon − a snake with with eagle claws and eagle wings, maybe with lionine head. Likewise relatively easy.

A large dragon that can fly, maybe the size of a quetzalcoatlus?

At a certain point, a dragon feature might require artificial technology integrating other materials. But this too is conceivable.

 

[Corinnguard]

No, the point is, real world science does not work. There is absolutely no way you could create an owlbear using real world science. There is no way a dragon can fly and breathe fire using real world science.

There is no way right now to create an owlbear or to create a dragon that fly and breathe fire using science. We aren't that at point where we can scientifically and ethically create either one.

 

[Yaarel]

There is no way right now to create an owlbear or to create a dragon that fly and breathe fire using science. We aren't that at point where we can scientifically and ethically create either one.

Especially ethically is a challenge. Right now such "experiments" would include many experiments going wrong before one happens to satisfy the parameters.

These "experiments gone wrong" would likely be suffering animals − or suffering humans or other sapient beings.


But if computers are powerful enough to simulate the "evolution" (machine learning), then these experiments are virtual. No one suffers.

 

[Umbran]

Gene splicing can grow a human ear on a mouse.

The "Vacanti Mouse"? Nope - not gene spliced. It was cow cartilage cells seeded and grown in a mold and then implanted under the mouse's skin, back in 1996. It was an experiment about growing cells on scaffolds to regenerate organs, not gene manipulation.

Vacanti mouse - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Micah Sweet]

There is no way right now to create an owlbear or to create a dragon that fly and breathe fire using science. We aren't that at point where we can scientifically and ethically create either one.

I doubt ethics had anything to do with the creation of owlbears, in any reality.

 

[Corinnguard]

I doubt ethics had anything to do with the creation of owlbears, in any reality.

Owlbears and other creatures like them are the results of 'eager beaver' wizards.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There is no way right now to create an owlbear or to create a dragon that fly and breathe fire using science. We aren't that at point where we can scientifically and ethically create either one.

And never will be. Just as we will never invent warp drive. It’s plot-magic, not science.

 

[Corinnguard]

And never will be. Just as we will never invent warp drive. It’s plot-magic, not science.

You and I don't know that. Don't assume that just because you said it that it won't come to pass.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You and I don't know that. Don't assume that just because you said it that it won't come to pass.

I know it won’t come to pass the same way I know I’m going to start shooting fireballs from my fingertips. Because it’s magic, not science.

 

[Corinnguard]

Who was it that said that highly advanced science was indistinguishable from magic?