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Compared to what? Some trees are very old. There's a bristlecone pine tree in California that has been around since before man knew how to smelt iron. What repr
by landryraccoon 11y ago
Compared to what? Some trees are very old. There's a bristlecone pine tree in California that has been around since before man knew how to smelt iron. What reproduces better than living things? Virtually nothing made by human beings is expected to last that long, let alone something as complex and intricate as a tree is. Some buildings, by luck and continuous maintenance, may last as long - but they don't self reproduce and only stay standing through massive ongoing repair.
- pmiller2 11y agoTrue enough, but for every bristlecone pine or ancient yew tree, there are billions of bacteria that live mere days and insects that live a few weeks or months. In addition to vastly outnumbering them, I would wager that all the insects and bacteria of the world probably outweigh all the 500+ year old trees currently in existence.
- mc808 11y agoTo really stretch the analogy, there are also millions (perhaps billions) of short-lived, abandoned software projects that never grew into something big and reliable. They're less interesting because it's usually pretty obvious why they failed.