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Man Invents Coffin, Turns Bodies Into Mushrooms: ‘We are nutrients, not waste’
- otachack 5y agoIn the Expanse series of books/show, human bodies are sent to "the recycler" after death and used for continuing the living. The theory of this is fascinating and it's fascinating to see real life examples.
- sidpatil 5y agoHuxley's Brave New World featured a similar concept. The dead would be cremated, and basic elements would be recovered from the remains.
- hermitsings 5y agoIt certainly takes out of the box thinking. Not for every culture but those that bury might adopt.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- lou1306 5y agoThose that cremate may consider just using a steam engine :)
- Jyaif 5y agoStill not as economical and ecological (the coffin needs to be built and transported) as burying a body directly in the ground.
- frazbin 5y agoI'd rather be liquified and injected into an oil well. The carbon cycle has enough carbon for now, no reason to delude ourselves into thinking we were ever actually helping this poor planet by existing.
- sitkack 5y agoMany of us will spend 80 years collecting trace amounts of the elements necessary for life. The carbon sure, but the other stuff is really useful.
- treeman79 5y ago[flagged]
- frazbin 5y agooh man I wish! The thing about the elements necessary for life, is that by definition they're present in sufficient quantities in all life; and it's not like humans need any special elements. What's true is we spend 80+ years picking up trace amounts of stuff that's inimical to life, but our bodies can't get rid of it. I'm thinking about heavy metals and halocarbons, because they are toxic, they persist, and they are absorbed by the soil ecosystem. Deep well injection seems much more ecological a fate for a human body. Also, in terms of last wishes, it seems bloody arrogant to think that the contaminated shell I used to pillage this planet would be in any way useful after the fact. Chemically speaking, we have declared ourselves independent from nature. And biologically speaking, nature doesn't need any of our filth. end of the day a dead human body is the ultimate useless tchotchke. "What were they good for?" "Dunno but they sure cranked out a lot of em"
- esyir 5y agoI'd be a bit wary of corpse -> foodstuff conversion, largely because of prion risk. This isn't that though, from what I get. It's just facilitated decomposition of the body.