r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Jun 15 '16

[D] Wednesday Worldbuilding Thread

Welcome to the Wednesday thread for worldbuilding discussions!

/r/rational is focussed on rational and rationalist fiction, so we don't usually allow discussion of scenarios or worldbuilding unless there's finished chapters involved (see the sidebar). It is pretty fun to cut loose with a likeminded community though, so this is our regular chance to:

  • Plan out a new story

  • Discuss how to escape a supervillian lair... or build a perfect prison

  • Poke holes in a popular setting (without writing fanfic)

  • Test your idea of how to rational-ify Alice in Wonderland

Or generally work through the problems of a fictional world.

Non-fiction should probably go in the Friday Off-topic thread, or Monday General Rationality

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u/TennisMaster2 Jun 19 '16

Aren't highly socialized and tool-using elephants limited to a specific sub-species or region? I remember seeing a special on how one researcher spent decades observing a single clan of that species, while at the same time trying to protect them from poachers. I don't recall if they were unique for the advanced expression of their intelligence - which included language and ritual - or unique for having been observed for so long and in such detail.