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We're pretty good at mass producing bombs. Hasn't ended civilization yet. Dropping a bunch of plastic eating enzymes won't be more effective...
by gph 9y ago
We're pretty good at mass producing bombs. Hasn't ended civilization yet. Dropping a bunch of plastic eating enzymes won't be more effective...
- sqeaky 9y agoBombs aren't distributed by tiny self-reproducing nano-machines that outnumber humans a trillion to one. A bacteria making an enzyme that allows it to gain nutrition from plastic would certainly be an interesting problem for humanity. I cannot say if it would be doomsday level or a minor inconvenience, but neither can easily be disregarded because there is no precedent. Wood is not a good example because nature has had nearly a billion years to figure out an efficient way to reclaim the energy in wood and the closest it got is slow fungal process. This is why when we make wood structures we paint them or treat the wood with fungicides.