Ok, I got nerd sniped on the specific argument "Animals would be better off being made of stronger material than protein, but they don't because evolution can't find this solution".

Graphene

Graphene is (kind of) a wonder material. It's a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal grid, each one bonded to three others. Any damage to the structure entails breaking strong covalent bonds between the carbons. It's the strongest material per unit weight that we know of. The standard refrain is that a meter-by-meter hammock of graphene could support a 4kg cat while weighing less than one of the cat's whiskers.

(Of course, you could rip the hammock with your hands, or cut it with a knife, because per unit weight is doing all the work there. The sheet of graphene is weaker than, for example, a sheet of fabric, or a sheet of skin, because it's just so much thinner than them. Perhaps an animal could stack multiple layers of graphene, but at some point it loses its flexibility.)

The main problem for animals is that graphene is hard to build with proteins, and it's highly hydrophobic. It's also really weird to try and build [...]

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Outline:

(00:19) Graphene

(01:42) Steel

(01:56) Kevlar

(04:43) Its All Too Confusing

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First published:
April 7th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3mpR4wdi4AKgsQKnt/why-is-flesh-so-weak

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why is Flesh So Weak?” by J Bostock

LessWrong (30+ Karma)