Story riddle

[questionposter]

During the era of the dinosaurs, an alien vessel landed on Earth and set a device down on Earth to collect animal species according to their weight, but before they returned to get it, their ship got destroyed.

Now, a man get's out of his truck in the middle of a field and finds a line miles long where 3 of various animals lined up, like such as deer, alligators and even small dinosaurs. They weren't dead and decayed, they were somehow preserved but motionless.

Then, the man notices in the distance that a small spherical machine was rolling towards him at 5 miles per hour. But, the man could outrun the machine. He didn't know what to do, but he ran away, a mile away, and stopped, but he still saw the machine coming towards him.

So then, he ran a little more and got up on a cliff and found a large boulder where he waited for the machine. When the machine crossed the path, he pushed the boulder over it. But, out from underneath the boulder came the machine looking completely unscathed. So the man keeps running away trying to think of ideas, and the machine slowly but steadily just follows him. The man can't keep running forever, so he tries swimming into the middle of a large small pond and just floating, but the machine just floated on the water as if it weighed nothing.

The man makes it back to shore with the machine shortly behind him, but finally the man is out of breath and trips over a tree branch coming out of the ground. The machine finally get's to him, and stops 1 foot from him, but, the machine does not do anything with him, and instead wanders in a random direction.

 

 

Why didn't the machine capture him?

Edited April 15, 2012 by questionposter

[JustinW]

There could be no man driving trucks in the era of dinosaurs. Either that or he was too fat and weighed too much.

[questionposter]

There could be no man driving trucks in the era of dinosaurs. Either that or he was too fat and weighed too much.

 

I didn't say during that era, I said "Now".

Now, a man get's out of his truck in the middle of a field...

 

 

Edited April 16, 2012 by questionposter

[John Cuthber]

If it was looking for species by weight it might have been more interested in his gut bacteria than in him.

[CaptainPanic]

a small spherical machine was rolling towards him at 5 miles per hour

 

[...]

 

Why didn't the machine capture him?

 

Because it was about as dangerous as a baby bunny chasing you.

 

I think the real question is: why did the man run away in the first place? Coward.

[Joatmon]

Because the ball was short sighted and it wasn't until it got close enough that it realised it already had 3 specimens of homo sapiens.

[ozric]

Was it a Pokeball?

[questionposter]

None of these answers are correct so far.

 

Because the ball was short sighted and it wasn't until it got close enough that it realised it already had 3 specimens of homo sapiens.

 

 

How did the machine see him from a mile away and start to chase after him then?

 

 

Was it a Pokeball?

 

They aren't indestructible as far as I know and they probably don't float on water.

 

 

Because it was about as dangerous as a baby bunny chasing you.

 

I think the real question is: why did the man run away in the first place? Coward.

 

It's not that it was dangerous, it's that the man was probably afraid he would have gotten paralyzed like the rest of the animals.

 

 

If it was looking for species by weight it might have been more interested in his gut bacteria than in him.

 

Does the amount of bacteria in your gut really make up that large of a percent of your body mass?

Edited April 16, 2012 by questionposter

[ozric]

 

 

Does the amount of bacteria in your gut really make up that large of a percent of your body mass?

 

There are more bacteria in our body than body cells, but no the majority of our weight is not bacteria!

 

How about this:

 

The device was programmed by the alien race to capture animals right?

 

However, humans, Homo sapiens, had not evolved yet and so the device was not programmed to capture them as the aliens were not aware that we would evolve in the future.

 

[questionposter]

There are more bacteria in our body than body cells, but no the majority of our weight is not bacteria!

 

How about this:

 

The device was programmed by the alien race to capture animals right?

 

However, humans, Homo sapiens, had not evolved yet and so the device was not programmed to capture them as the aliens were not aware that we would evolve in the future.

 

 

The aliens set it to capture any animal according to weight, and only capture 3 of any particular animal, but if your thinking it had already caught 3 humans then, why would it of started chasing him in the first place? It's clearly an advanced machine than can distinguish between things.

[md65536]

The man makes it back to shore with the machine shortly behind him, but finally the man is out of breath and trips over a tree branch coming out of the ground.

He fell in some mud.

 

 

 

 

finally the man is out of breath and trips over a tree branch coming out of the ground.

maybe he dies

[questionposter]

He fell in some mud.

 

 

 

 

 

maybe he dies

 

What do you think mud would do? Your thinking may be on the right track, but why would just covering himself with mud make the machine go away? It can still see him, and I didn't say he fell into a wet puddle or anything.

And, based on the information, I don't think you can safely assume the man is dead.

Edited April 17, 2012 by questionposter

[hypervalent_iodine]

Sorry, I accidentally pressed the - button on one of your posts, questionposter. If someone could fix that, I would be eternally greatful.

 

Also,

 

 

covering himself in mud kinda makes him look like a gorilla, though I'm not sure if that's anywhere near correct.

 

[questionposter]

Sorry, I accidentally pressed the - button on one of your posts, questionposter. If someone could fix that, I would be eternally greatful.

 

Also,

 

 

covering himself in mud kinda makes him look like a gorilla, though I'm not sure if that's anywhere near correct.

 

 

The mud could do something, but that's not what it does. The machine doesn't care what species something is. If it fits in the parameters and there isn't 3 of it already, it will collect it.

Edited April 17, 2012 by questionposter

[Joatmon]

 

How did the machine see him from a mile away and start to chase after him then?

 

 

Because the machine has a technical system (say moving heat detector ) that can detect a life form at a distance, but being short sighted it needs to get up close to properly identify the specimen.

 

Because the machine has a technical system (say moving heat detector ) that can detect a life form at a distance, but being short sighted it needs to get up close to properly identify the specimen.

Hear is a more serious attempt which I will hide:-

 

Being alien, the ball is satisfied because it already has 3 specimens of great apes and doesn't see humans as anything special

 

 

 

[ozric]

 

 

 

Hear is a more serious attempt which I will hide:-

 

Being alien, the ball is satisfied because it already has 3 specimens of great apes and doesn't see humans as anything special

 

 

 

 

The machine is gathering species of animals. Humans are a different species of great ape to the ones the machine it my have already collected.

 

I can't think why he would not get captured. My only explanation is humans hadn't evolved yet so the aliens wouldn't know to programme them into the machine.

[questionposter]

Because the machine has a technical system (say moving heat detector ) that can detect a life form at a distance, but being short sighted it needs to get up close to properly identify the specimen.

I think that's a little bit too complex...

 

 

Hear is a more serious attempt which I will hide:-

 

Being alien, the ball is satisfied because it already has 3 specimens of great apes and doesn't see humans as anything special

 

 

 

Like I said before, the machine doesn't care what species something is, like if it's human, it will collect it if it fits the parameters and there isn't 3 of it. But, the machine is running after the human and chasing him down, so the machine probably doesn't have 3 humans already.

And a human covered in mud looks pretty different not only from a human, but from an ape as well. And I still never said that the guy fell into a puddle.

 

 

The machine is gathering species of animals. Humans are a different species of great ape to the ones the machine it my have already collected.

 

I can't think why he would not get captured. My only explanation is humans hadn't evolved yet so the aliens wouldn't know to programme them into the machine.

 

The aliens didn't need to program it with all of the specific species that were already on Earth, all they programmed it to do is find animals that fit the parameters and get three of them, I don't get why peopel keep thinking this machine discriminates against newer species.

Edited April 17, 2012 by questionposter

[ozric]

I hate this machine and wish it did collect the man so we wouldn't have to answer this puzzling question! lol

[michel123456]

I guess the man did what I would do:

 

He woke up

 

[md65536]

The sphere is not a Species Collectorbot, but is instead a Pleasurebot from the planet Sexulon 5.

It pursued the man in order to invoke the ancient Sexulon tradition of snoo snoo.

When the man tripped he scraped his knee, and the pleasurebot was a bit grossed out.

Also, having ADD, it soon was distracted by a butterfly and wandered off to watch it.

 

 

 

 

Seriously though, from your replies it's clear that you didn't give enough information to solve the puzzle, but you're giving us additional clues so that's not so bad. Here are the clues we have so far:

- The intention of the sphere is to collect species, and it intends to collect a human (otherwise it wouldn't chase him), and it does not yet have 3 of them.

- Weight is an important factor, and the man's weight is acceptable while he is chased.

- The count of specimens may be important. They want 3 of each.

- The act of tripping is important. He remains alive and recognizable as human, but possibly injured or dirtied or otherwise changed---or perhaps inaccessible?---and this is important.

 

Am I on the right track?

 

He didn't fall in mud, but he was wet from the pond.

I can't think of a good answer. Perhaps he scraped his knee, and the sphere, being a psychotic perfectionist, dumped him.

Perhaps he took the Lord's name in vain when he fell, and the sphere, being a devout Christian, dumped him.

Perhaps he cried like a child, and the sphere, being shallow, went off in search of a "real man".

Edited April 17, 2012 by md65536

[questionposter]

I guess the man did what I would do:

 

He woke up

 

 

There isn't much to suggest it's necessarily to sway it to being a dream though.

Seriously though, from your replies it's clear that you didn't give enough information to solve the puzzle, but you're giving us additional clues so that's not so bad. Here are the

- The intention of the sphere is to collect species, and it intends to collect a human (otherwise it wouldn't chase him), and it does not yet have 3 of them.

- Weight is an important factor, and the man's weight is acceptable while he is chased.

- The count of specimens may be important. They want 3 of each.

- The act of tripping is important. He remains alive and recognizable as human, but possibly injured or dirtied or otherwise changed---or perhaps inaccessible?---and this is

 

I did give enough information, you just have to think about the parameters. I'm actually very surprised no one has gotten it yet, especially since someone suggested mud was all over his body.

Edited April 17, 2012 by questionposter

[John Cuthber]

 

 

Does the amount of bacteria in your gut really make up that large of a percent of your body mass?

No, but there's nothing that special about my gut bacteria. If the robot was looking for e coli it could find them in any mammalian gut.

There's more e coli (by mass) in the world than people

[questionposter]

Well, this thread is getting to be long, so I'll just say it:

 

 

The man doesn't get caught because he loses enough weight from all the running he did to fall out of the weight parameters of the robot.. Alternatively, mud would have helped because it may have added too much weight for him to be within the robot's parameters if there had been mud.

 

Edited April 19, 2012 by questionposter

[ozric]

Well that's a bit unfair as you did not say the weight parameters had a definite lowest and highest weight. So I take it the machine didn't pick up any mice, moles, pigeons or peregrine falcons?

 

I was under the impression the machine was some sort of 'Noah's Ark' and aiming to pick up everything from the lightest to heaviest.

 

Sorry but that was a disappointing answer

[questionposter]

Well that's a bit unfair as you did not say the weight parameters had a definite lowest and highest weight. So I take it the machine didn't pick up any mice, moles, pigeons or peregrine falcons?

 

I was under the impression the machine was some sort of 'Noah's Ark' and aiming to pick up everything from the lightest to heaviest.

 

Sorry but that was a disappointing answer

 

I didn't directly say the specific parameters, but I did say the robot had already picked up deer and small dinosaurs, and based on that you can infer the parameters are within the 150-200 range. I suppose it might be better though to be more specific.

 

And if it was an ark you could also have assumed it stopped because it already had something of the weight the man had at the end, but not something of the weight the man had at the beginning.

Edited April 19, 2012 by questionposter