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+1. Besides being a good story, the piece is also informative, and that part, unfortunately, is misinformation. On the other hand, let me introduce a wild hypo
by emiliobumachar 6y ago
+1. Besides being a good story, the piece is also informative, and that part, unfortunately, is misinformation.
On the other hand, let me introduce a wild hypothesis:
There are millions of planets out there just like Earth, except that microorganisms there never got around to digesting lignin. Deadwood and oxygen piled up on the ground and in the atmosphere respectively, until an epic fire decimated the biosphere, and only microscopic ocean life remained, if as much. The oldest such planets light up every billion years or so. The cycle is too short for complex life to get intelligent. This process is The Great Filter [1]. Earth is the only exception.
If that's true, than Mr. R&D did care a lot about future disasters.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- kremlin 6y agoI had this thought while I was reading this. when he said the bit about there being so much oxygen in the atmosphere that the whole thing could light on fire, I thought, "maybe there's some planet that that happened on. maybe most planets with live have that happen eventually".