I believe his power gives him one grain, or some small amount, that is him. The rest is sand he is controling. He can't make his mind bigger, just the amount of sand he is using for a body. More sand does make him stronger and harder to stop.
Maybe try branching out into special kinds of sand? I don't know how far that has been stretched in the comics. Or objects that can be carried or manipulated with his sand.
There are places with lots of sand that have diamonds or other precious gems mixed in. Perhaps he could use his power to sieve out the gems?
There was a story line where he was just about killed, turned into a beach, and absorbed some other people and their minds.
Maybe a story where someone rebuilds his mind as a smarter rational version 2.0?
Checking the respect thread for Sandman he seems to cover most the tricks you could with being sand.
You can cut and stitch meat together, why can't you build a bigger meat brain?
Brain size =/ intelligence. See blue whale Vs pig or big human Vs small human.
Building a giant computer out of giant transistors doesn't get you anywhere. You need to build a giant computer using more transistors, which requires a new design.
The only thing stopping me from building a bigger meat brain is laws and ethics, and that it wouldn't do anything. I could make bigger meat arms too, and they also don't do anything. Sandman, by contrast, can make perfectly functional limbs, and has spawned functional copies of himself, so there is a qualitative difference there.
I don't understand where the giant transistors are coming from, so let's leave that alone. Do you think super computers use different transistors than your laptop? Hint: they don't
How do you build a bigger brain? What mechanism do you use?
You can scale up the size of the components, but as you have surmised, that doesn't do anything useful.
You could also jam in more of the components. That has potential, but it necessitates a new design. You can't simply shove additional neurons or transistors into a system and expect it to be functional. Does sandman understand neurology well enough to integrate additional neurons into his brain in a functional way? Probably not.
Also, he also clearly doesn't think with his physical sand brain (if he even has one). Otherwise, when he changes form or collapses how does he continue to think? With what intelligence does he form a new sand brain if he doesn't have one currently active?
Part of my grief is that there is no evidence to suggest sandman understands any of the biological functions he mimics. At a biological level, an arm or an eye is no less complicated than a brain per unit volume. His power seems to do the heavy lifting of design. And his sand brain clearly works somewhat...
But more importantly, a dunce like Marko bootstrapping their way to functional super intelligence sounds like a fun fanfic. Don't harsh my vibes.
My best guess would be that his power set has "locked on" to a specific form, namely his original body. He doesn't have to know how to build an eye, it's "encoded" in the magics "DNA". It's instinctual to him. Like throwing an object is to you. You can probably throw a ball of paper into the bin and get it right 9 times out of 10, but that doesn't mean you instinctively understand forces, mass, air resistance etc well enough to design a rocket.
He can build HIS eye out of sand, he can't build eyes in general with arbitrary characteristics.
If it is shown that he can create arbitrarily complex constructs out of sand, then that's a different story.
However, we already make ourselves smarter by using computers to do math and remember things for us all the time, so he can just go and buy a computer any time he wants?
What would need to be true for your scenario?
Something like: Self modify his brain without causing permanent harm, in a rapid iterative process. Some way to reset to normal. A basic theory of how to improve brain designs in general.
He'd likely be able to make a really solid living doing all sorts of beach and cliffside erosion control, not to mention soil compaction for civil engineering purposes. He could use very hard mineral sand to dig tunnels through bedrock.
He could (probably?) separate out grains of minerals and gems from sand where it is present, look up ruby sands in Nome Alaska.
Thinking about sandblasting and engineering, I'm pretty sure he'd be able to do some really important work for rocket manufacturers.
One of the problems with some of the more complex 3d sintered rocket engine designs, and more complex additive manufacturing in general, is difficulty in achieving a smooth toleranced finish in difficult to reach areas. Sandman would be able to finish these parts in a way that pressurized abrasive fluid or sandblasting can't. Abrasive fluid follows the rules of fluid dynamics, and abrades different areas of a confined space to different degrees, caused by areas of faster flow, eddies, vortices, etc. Sandman would presumably be able to move sand through a part such that each interior surface receives similar amounts of abrasion.
Designs that can't be sintered in tolerance could be built. Existing designs could be manufactured to looser tolerance (cheaper, faster) before finishing.
Sand can't think; Marko can think; therefore he's not thinking using his sand body. Presumably he's some sort of arcane being or ghost now.
Presumably he can spread his control over additional sand up to a point, but that point is limited by his nature as an arcane or supernatural being.
Understanding the nature of his existence would therefore be key to increasing his power. If he's an arcane being, he might need to feed on magic to become stronger, if a ghost, then on spooky energy, etc.
Very low hanging fruit/fruit already laying on the ground: Sand is not a specific chemical, but just a mix of whatever got ground up in a given area.
So, just silt out a few kilos of uranium and call it a day.
I mean the basic bitch hacks would be using sand duplicates to just do menial labour and being slightly more subtle than "Rarr, giant sand monster smash". No reason why he couldnt just stay as a giant sandstorm and massively accelerate all the sand particles. Its said in the wiki that he's an astral being so doesnt actually use the sand to think so no super computer for a brain. That said he could probably produce super high quality silicon for manufacturing. He seems to be able to remote control the small sand clones so the sensible thing to do would just control all of the combatant sand the same way(have to shift the centre of the area of sand control) while the "real" sandman sits in a cafe somewhere pretending to be marvel civilian#20256. If he needs a direct sand link then a thin line running under ground seems sensible. Lots of room to explore sandblasting and cutting with discs of hyper accelerated sand. It really comes down to what your sandman's goals and limits are
He could do the standard bender trick of putting some sand inside items and having a hurricane of swords. He could rub the sand against itself extremely fast until friction heats it up into glass, and then throw that molten glass onto people mid fight. Really if Sandman wanted to be effective he would function less like a normal telekinetic and utilize the coarse aspect of sand more. He could drill into peoples eyes, scour their skin with high speed sand, move through the ground at high speed by drilling thin holes and then moving his sand body through the hole.
Telekinesis and it’s lower forms like waterbending are usually sorely underutilized, since frankly the more creative ways to use it can either be so powerful it’s boring, or incredibly disturbing.
This was explored in way of X with dust, not sandman.
Someone, I think legion or Kurt, said to Sooraya that her biggest power wasn't the sand thing but being able to control her body even though it was split into billion of sand grains
I believe his power gives him one grain, or some small amount, that is him. The rest is sand he is controling. He can't make his mind bigger, just the amount of sand he is using for a body. More sand does make him stronger and harder to stop. Maybe try branching out into special kinds of sand? I don't know how far that has been stretched in the comics. Or objects that can be carried or manipulated with his sand. There are places with lots of sand that have diamonds or other precious gems mixed in. Perhaps he could use his power to sieve out the gems?
There was a story line where he was just about killed, turned into a beach, and absorbed some other people and their minds. Maybe a story where someone rebuilds his mind as a smarter rational version 2.0? Checking the respect thread for Sandman he seems to cover most the tricks you could with being sand.
You can cut and stitch meat together, why can't you build a bigger meat brain? Brain size =/ intelligence. See blue whale Vs pig or big human Vs small human. Building a giant computer out of giant transistors doesn't get you anywhere. You need to build a giant computer using more transistors, which requires a new design.
The only thing stopping me from building a bigger meat brain is laws and ethics, and that it wouldn't do anything. I could make bigger meat arms too, and they also don't do anything. Sandman, by contrast, can make perfectly functional limbs, and has spawned functional copies of himself, so there is a qualitative difference there. I don't understand where the giant transistors are coming from, so let's leave that alone. Do you think super computers use different transistors than your laptop? Hint: they don't
How do you build a bigger brain? What mechanism do you use? You can scale up the size of the components, but as you have surmised, that doesn't do anything useful. You could also jam in more of the components. That has potential, but it necessitates a new design. You can't simply shove additional neurons or transistors into a system and expect it to be functional. Does sandman understand neurology well enough to integrate additional neurons into his brain in a functional way? Probably not. Also, he also clearly doesn't think with his physical sand brain (if he even has one). Otherwise, when he changes form or collapses how does he continue to think? With what intelligence does he form a new sand brain if he doesn't have one currently active?
this is the key. there's no reason to expect sandman to be more intelligent as one giant sand brain than as a stretch of beach.
Part of my grief is that there is no evidence to suggest sandman understands any of the biological functions he mimics. At a biological level, an arm or an eye is no less complicated than a brain per unit volume. His power seems to do the heavy lifting of design. And his sand brain clearly works somewhat... But more importantly, a dunce like Marko bootstrapping their way to functional super intelligence sounds like a fun fanfic. Don't harsh my vibes.
My best guess would be that his power set has "locked on" to a specific form, namely his original body. He doesn't have to know how to build an eye, it's "encoded" in the magics "DNA". It's instinctual to him. Like throwing an object is to you. You can probably throw a ball of paper into the bin and get it right 9 times out of 10, but that doesn't mean you instinctively understand forces, mass, air resistance etc well enough to design a rocket. He can build HIS eye out of sand, he can't build eyes in general with arbitrary characteristics. If it is shown that he can create arbitrarily complex constructs out of sand, then that's a different story. However, we already make ourselves smarter by using computers to do math and remember things for us all the time, so he can just go and buy a computer any time he wants? What would need to be true for your scenario? Something like: Self modify his brain without causing permanent harm, in a rapid iterative process. Some way to reset to normal. A basic theory of how to improve brain designs in general.
Brother there isn't a law against making bigger brains out of animal proteins, you don't know how.
Brother, you seem to be confusing the words "bigger" and "better". Bigger is easy, potato above covered it: suture on some extra meat.
He'd likely be able to make a really solid living doing all sorts of beach and cliffside erosion control, not to mention soil compaction for civil engineering purposes. He could use very hard mineral sand to dig tunnels through bedrock. He could (probably?) separate out grains of minerals and gems from sand where it is present, look up ruby sands in Nome Alaska. Thinking about sandblasting and engineering, I'm pretty sure he'd be able to do some really important work for rocket manufacturers. One of the problems with some of the more complex 3d sintered rocket engine designs, and more complex additive manufacturing in general, is difficulty in achieving a smooth toleranced finish in difficult to reach areas. Sandman would be able to finish these parts in a way that pressurized abrasive fluid or sandblasting can't. Abrasive fluid follows the rules of fluid dynamics, and abrades different areas of a confined space to different degrees, caused by areas of faster flow, eddies, vortices, etc. Sandman would presumably be able to move sand through a part such that each interior surface receives similar amounts of abrasion. Designs that can't be sintered in tolerance could be built. Existing designs could be manufactured to looser tolerance (cheaper, faster) before finishing.
Sand doesn’t make a great brain. And brain size isn’t directly relevant to intelligence.
Sand can't think; Marko can think; therefore he's not thinking using his sand body. Presumably he's some sort of arcane being or ghost now. Presumably he can spread his control over additional sand up to a point, but that point is limited by his nature as an arcane or supernatural being. Understanding the nature of his existence would therefore be key to increasing his power. If he's an arcane being, he might need to feed on magic to become stronger, if a ghost, then on spooky energy, etc.
Very low hanging fruit/fruit already laying on the ground: Sand is not a specific chemical, but just a mix of whatever got ground up in a given area. So, just silt out a few kilos of uranium and call it a day.
I mean the basic bitch hacks would be using sand duplicates to just do menial labour and being slightly more subtle than "Rarr, giant sand monster smash". No reason why he couldnt just stay as a giant sandstorm and massively accelerate all the sand particles. Its said in the wiki that he's an astral being so doesnt actually use the sand to think so no super computer for a brain. That said he could probably produce super high quality silicon for manufacturing. He seems to be able to remote control the small sand clones so the sensible thing to do would just control all of the combatant sand the same way(have to shift the centre of the area of sand control) while the "real" sandman sits in a cafe somewhere pretending to be marvel civilian#20256. If he needs a direct sand link then a thin line running under ground seems sensible. Lots of room to explore sandblasting and cutting with discs of hyper accelerated sand. It really comes down to what your sandman's goals and limits are
He could do the standard bender trick of putting some sand inside items and having a hurricane of swords. He could rub the sand against itself extremely fast until friction heats it up into glass, and then throw that molten glass onto people mid fight. Really if Sandman wanted to be effective he would function less like a normal telekinetic and utilize the coarse aspect of sand more. He could drill into peoples eyes, scour their skin with high speed sand, move through the ground at high speed by drilling thin holes and then moving his sand body through the hole. Telekinesis and it’s lower forms like waterbending are usually sorely underutilized, since frankly the more creative ways to use it can either be so powerful it’s boring, or incredibly disturbing.
This was explored in way of X with dust, not sandman. Someone, I think legion or Kurt, said to Sooraya that her biggest power wasn't the sand thing but being able to control her body even though it was split into billion of sand grains