Little ingenuity

This ones going to sound a bit weird. Picture a Lilliputian who is about 6 inches tall and the strength proportianate to that. What are some ways you can recycle and repurpose junk to help them survive?

Edited by sifsand on Jul 16th 2019 at 10:56:26 AM

One thing to keep in mind is that doll clothes, beds, etc. are actually going to be mostly useless. That stuff is designed to look like human stuff, not to actually fill the same purpose.

Depending on where they live, they might be able to use moss as filling for their matresses or as blankets.

Esp at six inches tall. A little taller and they could use some of the American Girl/Boy stuff, which is actually at near normal quality (and priced accordingly).

In a wilderness survival situation they would actually be somewhat better off, since there are far more areas, even in built up zones, that support animals and plants scaled to six inches than there are scaled to six feet.

How about an urban environment? A place where you can expect to find human trash and scrap.

To give an example of what I had in mind, look at pretty much all the tools they used in the movie 9, or using basic junk as other tools like in The borrowers.

What's the tech level of the place where they are trying to survive? Pre or post industrial?

Hmmmm, if it's relatively modern I'd say post

In a modern urban environment it could be tough, simply because trash and junk tends to be disposed of in a relatively efficient manner. You tend not to find reusable stuff lying around on the ground. Our litter is mostly used product packaging made of paper, plastic or aluminum. OTOH, a six inch tall person might make a relatively successful thief, if they could gain access to a shopping mall or a department store.

Let's go with the shopping mall thread, say this little person goes and steals from a local mall, which would be like a city to them. If there's a pet store, something like pet-bedding could be used for mattress-filling. Jewelry stores sell lots of small items, like earrings, which could be used as weapons, decorations, currency, etc. And in the food-court, they could at least get their hands on things like plastic knives, again as a weapon.

And what about other tools? Let's say they need a chopping tool like an axe, a light source, a way to get over obstacles too big for them?

I would be off to the electronics store first. Assemble a micro fabricating unit, run it off of stolen power, and I think you make anything you need.

Might want to explain what that is.

As for a way to get over things, well, string and household objects like paper-clips can help as grappling tools, balloons might be able to lift them off the ground, and then there's electronic toys like remote-controlled airplanes...

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 21st 2019 at 9:09:16 AM

Sort of related, sort of not, being that height what animals would be considered a threat to them but not to a normal person? Like, are there any insects that are as big as them?

There are some free-ranging wolf spiders that big. Otherwise, their biggest worry is birds.

As for a micro-fabrication unit, well there are none to show you, for obvious reasons, but I'm thinking of a small battery powered electric motor that could be used to grind and cut things.

Alright, what about armor? I doubt doll clothes would be any good

I'm thinking foils could be used, maybe? They're flexible enough to be made into clothes, would be easy to find, and would allow for flexible movement. There's also bubble-wrap... and things like rings could be put over it, keeping it on tight while also providing extra protection!

And don't forget, in this you can take full advantage of the Square-Cube Law- these guys'll be quite strong, quite agile, and have great endurance.

I'm pretty sure that according to biology an intelligent being that small would have extreme difficulty even keeping warm due to having such a tiny heart. Plus, an intelligent mind also requires tons of energy. For the sake of that, it's probably safer to just handwave it.

After a stop at the DIY section of the local hobby/electronics store, the next step is to fabricate a flamethrower out of one of those high pressure cigarette lighters. If none of those are available, a normal lighter and a small spray bottle of purfume will work. For hunting, some sort of cross-bow would be ideal.

Of course, they'd only be hunting really small animals, unless their modus operandi is to all gang up on a larger animal. If they can kill these animals, using the weapons mentioned but also things like slingshots, rocks, maybe even traps, the animals can provide more than just meat. Bones and claws can be weapons or decoration or even serve as protection, pelts can be used for warmth or even furry armor, etc.

True.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 22nd 2019 at 8:18:50 AM

Well it's not out of the realm of plausibility for a smaller predatory animal to take down prey much bigger than it, just look at raptors.

Wait, there's a bunch of them? If they dont have to hide from the normals, either because they are useful in some way or are able to defend a territory, they can move on to small caliber handguns mounted on remote controlled cars, even airplanes. Good God, let them take over a toy factory and they could conquer the world!

Well I never really said they were alone, but even a group of mouse sized people will still have trouble surviving.