The ultimate human race Part 1: Bones

Question

I'm new here, and so don't expect something very well done, not that I won't be trying. So long ago in the infamous year of 2020 I went through and created a fictional world. On it there is a bunch of stuff that I have created that are irrelevant to this question, what matters is we have a human race that is advanced, and they are badasses. Or are supposed to be badasses. Essentially I'm pushing the absolute biological limits of humanity while keeping them looking exactly like humans. Essentially as I have gone through multiple different sci-fi franchises and after watching dozens of videos on a scientific explanation of these enhancements. I have generously taken and used some of these to try and give me at least something to explain their superhuman nature.

To explain this BS race I created through no creativity on my own accord, they are called Doumans on the world of Domum ("Home" in Latin (i think), so creative I know). Doumans because while they call themselves human, they are so different that calling them human isn't exactly right anymore so I'll refer to them as Doumans. They live on a world with 2.5 times gravity, but the planet has more oxygen then Earth so organisms are just as large if not larger then Earth despite the gravity. Or they should be so lets assume they are. Normal humans, even if they evolved on a normal gravity world simply could not survive there not without a whole host of upgrades. Hence where my Doumans come in. I made them to be the ultimate human race, more so for combat, and not survival, but lets ignore that right now. The Douman race survived how humans survived in our own timeline, but the only difference being they were much greater of a threat. Unlike humans who were persistence hunters, and survived in groups. Doumans were fully capable of running up to 40 km/h (at absolute max). They were meant to outpace, and outmaneuver larger predators while pinning similar sized/smaller creatures down. Their eyesight is improved, able to for example, perceive a round going 1000 m/s. Not react to it, but if someone shot it in front of their face they could see it in transit, and see where which direction it came from. They are able to take significantly larger quantities of punishment compared to normal humans. They are able to exert much more powerful forces, and jump 6ft (again absolute peak). Now this sounds impressive, and it is. But these were pulled out of nowehere and while I may be knowledgeable on some aspects of biology I am not great at theoretical organisms such as this. So time to move it on to a higher power, aka you guys. So lets have fun and play god gentlemen!

So to start off this series of creating a more explained and detailed Douman race we need to tackle these problems and enhancements they have one organ or ability at a time. So lets start with what I consider the most complicated first. Bone structure. What can we do to the internal organs specifically our skeletal structure to make it nigh-indestructible? For Doumans I gave them a boron carbide ceramic from halo, but this is a little too sci-fi. I chose Boron Carbide because not only is it extremely hard, and tough, but carbon is very common, and found in living organisms so it shouldn't lead to too many side-effects. Boron however is debatable so hopefully someone finds something better.So: How can we realistically change Douman bone structure to make them hyper-resilient, but not actually increase the weight of the bones? If that can't be done entirely how can we make the bones as lightweight as possible so they can still swim, but get hit by a semi truck and not break a single bone? And while that may be an exaggeration you get the idea.

However I only have really four rules for this.

Rule 1: Be detailed, and try to be realistic, not that theoretical ideas aren't allowed (This is a fictional race after all), just make sure to explain it as best you can and as scientifically as possible.

Rule 2: Be respectful if you have a debate or fact-check someone, and if you are the one being fact-checked don't take it personally or be sore, we all make mistakes. (Note: This rule doesnt apply to me. Be as mean as you want to me.)

Rule 3: Remember the parameters. Not to hard as there is only one parameter, and that parameter is don't change the Doumans external look, they have to look 100% "normal" on the outside or so close to normal the difference is irrelevant.

Rule 4: Have fun.

Answer 1

If that can't be done entirely how can we make the bones as lightweight as possible so they can still swim, but get hit by a semi truck and not break a single bone?

You are approaching this from the wrong angle. No matter how hard bones are, a 60-100 kg human will not survive without unbroken bones after being roadkilled by a semi.

Also the problem with high gravity is that galling will cause you to suffer bigger impacts.

So you need to design your doumans to be resilient to being hit. This does not necessarily mean harder bones. Instead, their skeleton should be designed with more freedom of movement, crumple zones and with "airbags" between bones.

Fortunate for you, this is actually an area of ongoing research and worldbuilding. Australian safety experts have worked on a design for a human creature that can survive car crashes much better than we do. Meet Graham, the man designed for high speed impact

And this is his official site.

Answer 2

You're basically asking us to be God, but do it better. A reasonable request and good clean fun, but there may be some delays in shipping.

• Let's start with the obligatory reference ... enough said. Evolution can do our plot work for us on the ground, but the worldbuilder needs to be creationist.

• Boron carbide? Maybe. Take any three elements from B, C, N, add rings of double bonds and charges as needed, call it a graphene analog. The problem is that boron is a rare element - not just on Earth, but everywhere, because stars don't make much of it. It may not seem rare at boron flats because it does accumulate on Earth's surface in places, but there's not enough to have it in the whole ecosystem. If it's not in the entire ecosystem, your humans become dependent on specific mineral sources. I'd say just use graphene, carbon nanotubes, or other more exotic allotropes of carbon. You might use these as reinforcing filaments, so they can be in tendons as well. The muscles can be reworked to include more pennate attachments, which introduce the tendon (and its new reinforcement structure) some distance into the muscle. These provide large force but a short distance of contraction - in humans - but you may imagine some ways to engineer them to add up their efforts. Alternatively, you could go to pure solid state contraction via some electrical mechanism in chemically modified carbon nanotubes. Some of these elements might combine or redefine the roles of muscle and skeleton, unless reverse compatibility prohibits unseemly use of tentacles. There is some risk as you go this far afield that your moumans will start to seem more like androids than biologicals.