4 ms·

I am suddenly very uncomfortable, imagining myself as a roiling blob of goo.

goldenkey 9y ago
Anything can be described both fancifully or dreadfully. One can say we are blobs of goo, biological automotons living on a speck of dirt in a googlplex of a cosmos. Or one can say that we are the result of billions of years of evolution on top of natural laws that first produced symmetries, conserved quantities, and higher level order like atoms and then stars - that then birthed heavier elements that eventually became us. So when you look up at the hard mineral made stars, remember that goo is just a mindset, for those very stars are effectively the embryonic stage of life itself.. You may enjoy Alan Watt's take on this: https://youtu.be/SOKwgP1Hte8 https://youtu.be/SOKwgP1Hte8
teraflop 9y ago
Don't be silly; you're trillions of blobs of goo.
- JshWright 9y ago
  And a lot of those blobs aren't even 'you'...
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    Not that many actually, the estimations about people being made of more non self stuff than selfstuff were based on no serious measurement and its more of an urban legend than a fact.
    - kens 9y ago
      Current estimates are that there are slightly more bacteria than human cells (3.8x10^13 vs 3.0x10^13) in a "reference man". However, the mass of the bacteria is only 0.2kg, so human cells totally dominate by mass. Interestingly, most of the human cells by count are red blood cells. http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533 http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...
    - Ultimatt 9y ago
      Nope. Its no urban legend. Recent findings now suggest there are free tissue bacteria species previously unknown about in humans. So the numbers of bacterial cells to human is only going up with understanding not down.
    - JshWright 9y ago
      I was referring to the number of blobs, not their mass.
DonHopkins 9y ago
Be thankful you're not a Martian Print Amoeba, otherwise someone might kill you and throw your cadaver into a vat of fixing chemical while you're emulating an iPhone. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Content.asp?Bnum=1776 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Content.asp?Bnum=1776 And also be glad you were't selected to become a spy and altered to be appear in Blobel form! https://philipkdickreview.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/oh-to-be-a-blobel/ https://philipkdickreview.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/oh-to-be-...
Terr_ 9y ago
If it helps, consider that you are the descendant of the original "grey goo" which since pervaded the surface of an entire planet. The inheritor of a billion years of techniques in construction, alliance, deception, and warfare. A uniquely coordinated swarm of assimilating nanotechnology, poised to leap into the cosmos. ... No pressure.
- Asooka 9y ago
  Or you can sit here and wait to become a star again.

Anything can be described both fancifully or dreadfully. One can say we are blobs of goo, biological automotons living on a speck of dirt in a googlplex of a cosmos. Or one can say that we are the result of billions of years of evolution on top of natural laws that first produced symmetries, conserved quantities, and higher level order like atoms and then stars - that then birthed heavier elements that eventually became us. So when you look up at the hard mineral made stars, remember that goo is just a mindset, for those very stars are effectively the embryonic stage of life itself.. You may enjoy Alan Watt's take on this: https://youtu.be/SOKwgP1Hte8 https://youtu.be/SOKwgP1Hte8

teraflop 9y ago

Don't be silly; you're trillions of blobs of goo.

JshWright 9y ago
And a lot of those blobs aren't even 'you'...
- ekianjo 9y ago
  Not that many actually, the estimations about people being made of more non self stuff than selfstuff were based on no serious measurement and its more of an urban legend than a fact.
  - kens 9y ago
    Current estimates are that there are slightly more bacteria than human cells (3.8x10^13 vs 3.0x10^13) in a "reference man". However, the mass of the bacteria is only 0.2kg, so human cells totally dominate by mass. Interestingly, most of the human cells by count are red blood cells. http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533 http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...
  - Ultimatt 9y ago
    Nope. Its no urban legend. Recent findings now suggest there are free tissue bacteria species previously unknown about in humans. So the numbers of bacterial cells to human is only going up with understanding not down.
  - JshWright 9y ago
    I was referring to the number of blobs, not their mass.

DonHopkins 9y ago

Be thankful you're not a Martian Print Amoeba, otherwise someone might kill you and throw your cadaver into a vat of fixing chemical while you're emulating an iPhone. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Content.asp?Bnum=1776 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Content.asp?Bnum=1776 And also be glad you were't selected to become a spy and altered to be appear in Blobel form! https://philipkdickreview.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/oh-to-be-a-blobel/ https://philipkdickreview.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/oh-to-be-...

Terr_ 9y ago

If it helps, consider that you are the descendant of the original "grey goo" which since pervaded the surface of an entire planet. The inheritor of a billion years of techniques in construction, alliance, deception, and warfare. A uniquely coordinated swarm of assimilating nanotechnology, poised to leap into the cosmos. ... No pressure.

Asooka 9y ago
Or you can sit here and wait to become a star again.