No birds,bats or similar

Derek Jackson

I do not know if this is ASB but WI nothing bigger than insects had learned to fly but humanity had still evolved.

Is there any chance of us flying?
 

rcduggan

it's not because of bats and birds that humans can't fly, it's because of our bone density and brain weight.

if humans were to be able to fly, we would need incredibly light bones, smaller brains, and thus wouldn't be human at all.
 

carlton_bach

I think the question is more technological than physiological. And my answer would be yes, though later than OTL, and possibly in a different manner. Instead of an age-old dream of humanity pursued by erratic geniuses through the centuries, flight would become a scientific development first theoretically explored, then technologically realised.
 

Uber_Amoeba

ASB, I think. In our ecosystem there's a very defined role for avians. A lack of them might very well erase the chance of Humans evolving.
 

zoomar

Yes, given the fact that at least three groups of vertebrates evolved powered flight, it is ASB to posit a world without bats, birds, pterodactyls, etc. Evolution of flying animals appears to be inevitable. However, it might not be ASB to posit a world in which they all became extinct by the time humans evolved.

This would probably affect the human desire for flight and limit a belief that machines could be built to do this. Early inventors would model their efforts on study of insects and gliding creatures such as flying fish, flying squirrels, etc. You might see more designs with four flapping wings or helicopter-like things. Oddly, the absence of flapping large vertebrates might help. Rather than assuming that the key to flight was flapping wings, inventors might focus more efforts on understanding how fish and squirrels glide. This could actually accelerate an understanding of flight and and not waste centuries trying to create flapping wings.
 
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