What Would Happen If You Were Shrunk?

[JBird]

Neat little video (pun not intended) that goes into the science of what could and would happen if the human body were shrunk to half an inch in size. I'm sure it could provide some inspiration to any shrinking story creators on here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=54&v=xkvo-DrU2gM

[Eviscerator]

I'd be eaten by the pet cats, I'm sure.

[NimrodClover]

A few years back there was a nice scientific discussion posted here about the real world limitations to human giants - just how large can one become and still fit the classical definition of a giant. At various points physical and anatomical limits are reached which would require ever increasing modifications to the body in order to practically maintain that size. Very quickly humans would not be very human-like especially after passing around 4 meters and with a reasonable maximum limit to remain bipedal at around 5m (16.5ft).

The same holds true for reduction in size with ever increasing compromises in order to attain a smaller volume. The most significant being on the size of your brain. Only so many neurons can be pressed into the skull of a particular size and as that shrinks so does the range of faculties that can be structured within the skull. Anything under 1/2m will greatly tax the ability to maintain an adult human level intellect.

Essentially, proportionate scaling of the human body only works within a narrow range given that some people are fixated on ant-sized and house-sized people.

[JBird]

That was some refreshing science.



I don't doubt in either case that the human body would be capable of surviving at such drastic sizes. And, in the Ant-Man film's case, they did not let the audience forget that the Pym Particles and size-shifting have side effects that affected the brain. There is also the two fairly gruesome deaths as a result of the imperfect shrinking process. Thinking about it still gives me chills.

[qzar9999]

If it happened, I'd be disappointed that it was me and not my woman.

On the other hand, I do also like Giantess stuff, so that would be a nice consolation prize. ^_^

And yeah, I've heard the stuff about the Square-Cube Law and survivability at various sizes before. That's why I'm holding out hope for either hyper-realistic virtual reality or neurally-linked androids (like in Surrogates). Either of those would make shrinking fantasies possible without, y'know, extreme suffering or horrific death.

EDIT: Also, ever seen the book The Man Who Liked Women? While she's still able to function pretty well at small sizes (basically a magical being) it does go into the physics problems inherent with the Square-Cube Law--that is, the advantages it gives a shrunken woman and the problems it presents for a giantess.

[JBird]

We can only hope that gadgets such as the Occulus Rift are taken seriously and allow for creative and experimental applications such as rendering formerly impossible viewpoints.

[NimrodClover]

The Square-Cube law is one such limitation. However just the physical limitation on maintaining human level thought in a brain the size of say a mouse (which happens to have the same ratio of brain to body as a human) makes this impossible.

One would need to come up with a whole new way to build a brain in order to think like a human at that size.

[TB Tabby]

Originally Posted by JBird

We can only hope that gadgets such as the Occulus Rift are taken seriously and allow for creative and experimental applications such as rendering formerly impossible viewpoints.

Which is already being done.