So I saw a thing on here about dwarves from LOTR having 'stone-sense', as in being able to tell when a part of a cave (even the things that they themselves made in said cave, FROM said cave) is either stable or unstable, and that's why they have massive bridges with no hand-holds or railings or any safety equipment at all, and I got to thinking about how that would work from, like, an evolutionary standpoint. Like, if it's not straight up magic (and hey, it could be, but saying it isn't is more interesting to me), then how does it actually work? Cos, like, there's no way it would actually be possible.
Yeah, turns out that it's not only possible, but it exists. And WE HAVE IT.
Basically, humans are also able to sense when caves, rooms, and structures are unstable. The thing is, we don't really notice it? Or rather, we notice it, but we don't actually know what we're noticing. Like, have you ever walked into an old house that's starting to fall apart, and you get this awful feeling of fear for seemingly no reason? That's actually your very own 'stone sense' telling you that HEY, THIS HOUSE IS NOT STABLE, NOT SAFE, LEAVE NOW.
It's actually an evolutionary hold-over from when we were living in caves and shit, cos back then cave-ins were a common danger, so we evolved to be able to tell when a cave is unstable and has a possibility of collapsing, so we could flee and therefore survive. People who had this sense would survive cave-ins, and were more likely to reproduce, so evolution was just like, "Oh, ok, let's just give these guys more of that", and now basically everyone has stone sense.
Thing is, we eventually started leaving caves and building houses and shit, so there was no need for stone sense anymore when we could just build reliable homes. But since the stone sense wasn't causing us any danger, evolution wasn't really in any hurry to get rid of it, so to speak. So it just kinda stuck around, and now we just sometimes get this really unsettling feeling inside of old buildings and shit. It's actually the cause of a lot of supposed 'hauntings'. It's just humans subconsciously freaking out about an old building collapsing on them, but not actually knowing that's what they're afraid of. So, naturally, we go with ghosts as an explanation.
Also, it's really likely that dwarves, if they do have stone sense, developed it the exact same way. The only difference is, they never left the caves, they just learned to work with the stone to make the caves sturdier and safer. So of course they still use this stone sense, so it's way stronger than any other species' as a result.
It also totally makes sense that they evolved specifically to live in caves. Short, round physique? Better balance due to a lower center of gravity, so they don't fall as easily in caves. Lots of body hair and huge beards? It gets fucking cold underground, and cold up in the mountains, they need that body hair. Not to mention, the thick beard hair would act like an air filter, catching all the dirt and stone dust in the mines so it doesn't get in their lungs.
Maybe I'm overthinking it and I need to go to bed, but I think it's really fucking cool. Honestly, it's so much fun to think about Middle Earth from a scientific standpoint.
