“Would aliens also have X?” for almost any X tickles the brain a lot.
The X that primed it for me just now (again) is stainless steel, but almost any generalization of it works.
47
25
480
Conversation
Does feel like the right way to rate the progress of a species is material technology!
Alien species prob relied on stainless steel during a brief phase of their existence? Humans have only had it for a small fraction and will likely move beyond it in time?
Great material tho!
5
32
If they have enough iron/carbon/chromium/++, and live around solids not float in air/water, and have oxygen+water around for “stainless” to make sense, and didn’t go some weird “zerg” tech route, and aren’t in otherwise extreme environments, and build structures at all, and... ;\
7
3
28
I wonder if an undersea sapient tool-using species (maybe something octopus-like) would find a way to smelt metal? There's stuff that burns underwater.