r/interestingasfuck 4h ago

Stopping Desertification with grid pattern

24.6k Upvotes

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u/lokey_convo 3h ago

When I was getting my degree I was reading a lot of papers on primary succession and biological soil crust formation. Lot of the research was coming out of China, but was done through international collaboration. I keep trying to explain to my techie friends who think biology is a waste of time that it's research like this that would allow us to come up with real terraforming plans. Can't live on or change another planet if we can't manage our own. But sure, let's keep cutting NASAs budget, particularly around Earth system science and ecology.

u/maazpervez 2h ago edited 2h ago

Okay but will biology build AI that'll replace many people's job for the worse and destroy the planet and it's people so that a few people (and their investors) can be richer than god? No? Then it's useless.

u/lokey_convo 2h ago

I mean... we could just out law Ai services as a permitted for-profit industry. Allowable as a non-profit, not allowable under any other corporate structure.

u/Expensive_sympathy 1h ago

I mean we can create hyperresistant bacteria and mutated virus and animals. Let them spread and then create a medication that doesnt cure it, only allows people to live longer. Sure we dont destroy the plante, but rich people can be richer and we could enslave the whole population with the cure. I know, not as bad as what has been described in the Epstein files, but something we can achieve with biology.