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I think that's a key point: you need to leave enough trash that it's evolutionary interesting to make use of that resource. It needs to provide a competitive ad

I think that's a key point: you need to leave enough trash that it's evolutionary interesting to make use of that resource. It needs to provide a competitive advantage. Not sure we're here yet, though some environments like dumps could cross that threshold. Oh, and time. Life is more diverse now than it was during carboniferous, but it still took millions of years for bacteria to learn how to digest lignin/wood.

gonzo41 5y ago
carboniferous, that period didn't have CRISPR. We could give that evolutionary path a little push along if we like.
- smsm42 5y ago
  I'd rather we didn't mess with that stuff. You can't uncreate a microorganism, we have no realistic way of controlling them (see under MRSA) and our world is made of plastic. I'd rather not have it fall apart because some lab assistant made an oopsie.
  - MayeulC 5y ago
    Sure, that's something to consider before releasing stuff like this in the wild, especially if it can mutate and start attacking something else. My point was: whether we use GMO or not, such a thing might happen naturally. There is also a chance that such a mutation does not offer much competitive advantage if other nutrients are easy to find, and the mutation disappears. I wouldn't bet on it though, given the number of ecological niches that exist.
    - smsm42 5y ago
      I'm sure microbes will learn to eat plastic eventually. But if we don't mess with it, they have plenty to eat already, so the pressure to specialize on plastics is low, and we have plenty of time to live our happy lives before that becomes a real problem. But now we have tools to accelerate these processes greatly. And there's a real potential for us to screw ourselves up - and we are way not advanced enough to un-screw-up ourselves if that happens. We're like a person living in a paper city who discovered fire, but doesn't know yet how to make anything fire retardant. It's not a good place to try stuff just to see what'd happen.
  - Heliga 5y ago
    Instead of the grey goo apocalypse everyone worried about with nanites, we'll have a green apocalypse.

gonzo41 5y ago

carboniferous, that period didn't have CRISPR. We could give that evolutionary path a little push along if we like.

smsm42 5y ago
I'd rather we didn't mess with that stuff. You can't uncreate a microorganism, we have no realistic way of controlling them (see under MRSA) and our world is made of plastic. I'd rather not have it fall apart because some lab assistant made an oopsie.
- MayeulC 5y ago
  Sure, that's something to consider before releasing stuff like this in the wild, especially if it can mutate and start attacking something else. My point was: whether we use GMO or not, such a thing might happen naturally. There is also a chance that such a mutation does not offer much competitive advantage if other nutrients are easy to find, and the mutation disappears. I wouldn't bet on it though, given the number of ecological niches that exist.
  - smsm42 5y ago
    I'm sure microbes will learn to eat plastic eventually. But if we don't mess with it, they have plenty to eat already, so the pressure to specialize on plastics is low, and we have plenty of time to live our happy lives before that becomes a real problem. But now we have tools to accelerate these processes greatly. And there's a real potential for us to screw ourselves up - and we are way not advanced enough to un-screw-up ourselves if that happens. We're like a person living in a paper city who discovered fire, but doesn't know yet how to make anything fire retardant. It's not a good place to try stuff just to see what'd happen.
- Heliga 5y ago
  Instead of the grey goo apocalypse everyone worried about with nanites, we'll have a green apocalypse.