5 ms·
Of course, nature wins again: paperclip maximization from flesh-eating bacteria adapted to plastic.
by turtleyacht 3y ago
Of course, nature wins again: paperclip maximization from flesh-eating bacteria adapted to plastic.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoSome context: Vibrio and pseudomonas have long been known to be able to consume hydrocarbons and derivates. Not all vibrio or pseudomonads are pathogenic, much less flesh eating, only some of them.
- masklinn 3y agoYep, and given plastic is useful but pretty stable you’d expect adaptation to plastic would lead to discarding other niches. Like flesh-eating.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoYou'd think but biology often comes up with stochastic surprises.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- XorNot 3y ago"flesh eating" is also pretty relative with bacteria. What's talked about as "flesh eating" is common bacteria that have infected an uncommon part of the body - namely when the infection gets into intercellular tissue space.
- namaria 3y agoThe ape pattern is proving self destructive.
- echelon 3y agoNo it's not. Don't be a misanthrope. Everything is awesome. Every year gets better and better for most of us on average. Be glad we're not an icy hellscape like Pluto. Or that we don't not exist.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoOn average. But the median is falling.
- ok_dad 3y agoPointing out humanity's flaws isn't being a misanthrope, we should strive not to fuck up our planet. Things are usually on an upwards trajectory, until they are not. When I have a company that is growing, there had better be some sustainability there, right? Today, there is some evidence that humanity's improvements used the environment as leverage, and the debt may have come due without the customer base to support it. edit: removed mixed metaphors
- throwway120385 3y agoPluto is a pretty low bar.
- skyechurch 3y agoI'm so old I remember when Pluto was a planet, as good as Jupiter or any of them. Now, it's just a punch line.
- throwway120385 3y agoA cold, cold dwarf planet.
- Avshalom 3y agowildly off topic but have you seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XPuS-Y0fg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XPuS-Y0fg ? it gave me a lot of feelings.
- 3y ago
- turtleyacht 3y agoI cannot find it, but this reference wouldn't be misplaced in older science fiction works, where humans are templates of an advanced civilization's creation engine (along with other species that have evolved sentience). Or even from Halo, although there humans are--spoiler spoiler spoiler--"exalted."
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoDunno about older sci-fi, but I'm reminded of the short(~100 pages) story All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet where humanity is genetically transformed by an alien civilisation into various other human-ish species across the galaxy, as slaves in a vast empire. Alt Shift X has a good audio version of it on youtube. It definitely hits an interesting nexus point between existential sci-fi and Lovecraftian horror, highly recommend it.
- turtleyacht 3y agoThank-you, I gave it a watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=imNtSPM3-r4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=imNtSPM3-r4 This one has sections to help organize the story: All Tomorrows: the Complete Timeline - https://youtu.be/qw9b9LnhY-8 https://youtu.be/qw9b9LnhY-8
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- moffkalast 3y agoWell the Holocene extinction event we are currently causing rivals the destructive power of supervolcanoes and asteroids in the number of species driven to extinction. Every time a species becomes so well adapted that it takes over the entire biosphere, it effectively wipes out most everything else. When land plants first evolved they did the opposite of what we're doing, turned all the CO2 into oxygen and killed 85% of all life.
- namaria 3y ago> When land plants first evolved they did the opposite of what we're doing, turned all the CO2 into oxygen and killed 85% of all life That was billions of years before land plants or land anything. The feat was accomplished by cyanobacteria, the first photosynthesis capable organisms on Earth. And they were blue...