feels cold, even when everyone else is warm?
We tend to joke that these
people are "cold blooded,"
but do we even know what that means?
Having cold blood involves
more than just needing
a few more blankets than everyone else.
If we all suddenly became
cold-blooded instead of warm,
our lives would be completely different.
When our body temperatures
get too hot or too cold,
we have built in processes like shivering
and sweating to help regulate them.
But cold-blooded, or ectothermic creatures,
don't have that same luxury.
That means that if we became cold-blooded,
our lives would be a lot more limited.
And in the winter, a good heater could
be the difference between life or death.
Do you think we'd be able to survive?
If you were to wake up
tomorrow with cold blood,
there'd be a lot of new things to get
used to, some good and some bad.
For one thing, your grocery bill
would be a lot smaller,
as you wouldn't have to eat nearly
as much as you do now.
Warm-blooded animals eat a lot
because they need all that energy
to keep their bodies at the right temperature.
But what if you like your three meals a day?
Sure, you could keep
eating just as much as you like,
but with no use for all those calories,
all that food would go straight to fat.
If you're smart about it, you
probably wouldn't have to worry
about visiting the doctor
as much anymore either.
Our warm-blooded bodies provide a nice
constant temperature, for germs to breed in,
as opposed to the variable
temperatures of the cold blooded.
If bacteria and viruses can't
get used to your body's climate,
then your chances of
getting sick drop significantly.
But that's not to say that you'd be invincible.
If you don't make a conscious
effort to keep yourself warm,
your low body temperature could
slow down your immune system
allowing bacteria and viruses
to creep up and infect you.
So, you may have become a less
desirable host for these pathogens,
but now you also have an active
responsibility in fighting them off.
Keeping yourself at a
proper body temperature
would become a crucial
part of your everyday life.
Since you'd be relying on
external sources of heat,
your house would have to be
kept much warmer than you're used to.
Your thermostat would not only
control the temperature of your house,
it'd be setting the exact temperature
you want your body to be too.
During the winter, any money you
would've saved on groceries
would be quickly gobbled
up by a sky-high heating bill.
Cold-blooded land dwellers tend to do best
in temperatures between
21 to 40 degrees celsius
So to make things easier for ourselves,
and to live more active lives,
we'd all be best to move
closer to the equator.
Except that'd be a lot of people
to move to one area of the planet,
and soon we'd be running into the usual issues
that come along with large
scale human migration.
It'd be over-crowded,
our resources would be running out,
and who knows how long it would take
before political instability came into play.
So maybe it'd be better if some of us
just moved to another planet altogether.
Yeah, it's a little ambitious, but bear with me
because space travel should actually
be much easier for cold-blooded humans.
When cold-blooded animals
hibernate over the winter,
they lower their body temperatures
to that of their surroundings,
and enter a state called torpor.
In this catatonic state, their breathing
and heartbeats slow down,
and they can survive for
long periods on stored body fat.
By employing this method,
a cold-blooded space crew
could survive much longer
than a warm-blooded one,
allowing them to travel for months,
or even years, on minimal resources.
Maybe out there in space
they'd find a planet
that's perfectly suited for
cold-blooded creatures,
and maybe there are
already some living there,
but that's a topic
for another WHAT IF.
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