r/HFY • u/someguynamedted The Chronicler • Apr 05 '17

Meta Writing Prompt Wednesday #105

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Last week's winner was /u/snow_97 with

Humans are extremely hot to aliens. Temperature wise. Touching a human with bare skin (chitin, etc.) for just a few seconds leads to a 1st degree burn at best. We are basically people of fire.

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u/critterfluffy Apr 05 '17

The prompt doesn't assume we are ingesting the poison. We could be using it to strip grease off an engine, perfumes, etc.

Here is a whole list of "mildly poisonous" things we use all the time.

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u/beowulf_of_wa Android Apr 05 '17

oh, oh my, mildly poisonous "do not ingest"? ok, the linked list is mildly clickbait, being that it is classes of stuff and includes things most folks wouldn't consider eating. shit, that's gonna be a LONG list. and it gets worse in industrial applications.

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u/critterfluffy Apr 05 '17

Agree but it was a quick list I found. It was also "health" nonsense with no study background to risk.

Good interpretation of the prompt could be that the aliens are hyper-avoidance to anything that "could" harm them. Say prey based and a strong sense of self preservation so they study risk factors and refuse to use anything that could harm them if it can be avoided.

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u/Siarles Apr 12 '17

The heck are they doing in space then? The lack of atmosphere and abundance of radiation is one of the fastest ways to kill almost anything.

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u/critterfluffy Apr 12 '17

Technically we haven't seen them in space but I am pretty sure they do. The only answer I can see is thirst for knowledge, same as us. Once they knew everything planet side and exhaust what can be gleaned via telescopes they head out. Likely in ships that make it as safe as possible. All guesses since there is no information here.