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Someone made a comment yesterday on another site about how we are still living in the bacterial age. It's a strange notion, that bacteria still own the earth,
by debacle 14y ago
Someone made a comment yesterday on another site about how we are still living in the bacterial age.
It's a strange notion, that bacteria still own the earth, but we are host to more bacteria than we are our own cells. It's such an interesting yet scary thing to think about - does higher order life exist solely as vessels for bacteria propagation?
- nlh 14y agoMind-bending, eh? It's not too scary a though though -- taking the evolutionists point of view, there is no "underlying" reason that higher order life exists. It exists because the processes of natural selection have enabled it to exist and reproduce. If bacteria contribute to the survival and reproduction of our species (they do), then they are simply part of the process. It goes both ways. We exist and reproduce because they help us do so, and they exist because we provide a nice host. One hand washes the other...
- npsimons 14y agoHow's that saying go? 'Life - the whim of a few billion cells to be you for a while'.
- marshray 14y agoWell bacteria are a lot smaller than our own cells, so comparing them by count doesn't seem very meaningful.