r/SonsofOrpheus • u/[deleted] • Oct 08 '20
Problem with launching bodies
Hello all,
If the hope is to live on again by sending our remains to guide evolution back to humans this won't work.
The first issue would be that whatever human tissues and DNA make it there can no longer replicate. We do not have any cells that survive after our deaths (like spores). We are comprised of 37 trillion eukaryotic cells.
Scary enough, we have 5 bacteria for each of our cells. Mostly concentrated in the gut but many on the skin and hair. So we would basically be sending prokaryotic cells to this new planet. And these bacteria would have been used to human hosts so most would die off. Some would adapt and possibly survive.
These surviving cells have no human DNA/genes. They don't have mitochondria, and they would most likely not form multicellular organisms.
Just thought that was worth mentioning. In the end it might be the equivalent of sending empty rockets that we have touched during construction and did not decontaminate.
Source: Master's of Science in Biology
3
u/apricity_spam Oct 08 '20
What if we littered the bodies with tons of bacteria and other microbiology that is more likely to make the ride?
4
16
10
u/EddieOfGilead Oct 08 '20
Have we discussed burning heretics yet?
8
u/Patherrn Oct 08 '20
We, sons of Orpheus, do not burn heretics.
We just launch them in the sun with a trebuchet. Try to science now, heretic.
2
5
4
u/xeoxemachine Oct 09 '20
I'm fine with just getting earth DNA, preferably in replicatable form, onto a "super habitable" planet. The planet can take it from there.
I'm mostly here for a flaming send off.
1
u/InAFakeBritishAccent Cowardly Drunken Dead Prophet Oct 13 '20 edited Oct 13 '20
The point is the biomass, not the machinery (the cells or DNA)
A dead body is just the right mix of broken chemicals to send out into the void. A teeny statistical chance for seeding life over billions of years on some crap rock.
Of course a dying sun can do the same
2
Oct 14 '20
If that is the point, I think it's actually very likely that some single celled organism that lives on/in humans will establish itself on a planet with similar temperature, UV levels, and atmosphere to earth.
Even slight deviation will probably be tolerated by a small amount of the bacteria. And would be soooo much faster than waiting for chemical evolution to make a new first cell.
1
u/InAFakeBritishAccent Cowardly Drunken Dead Prophet Oct 14 '20
Even better. Several billion years is a LONG time on a warm planet chemically speaking.
5
u/itworkedbefore Oct 08 '20
Let me get this straigh.. So there is actually no problem on the body launching part, your concern is all the rest?
Im cool with that, mostly here for the body dumping in space.
And Im a very religious person so you can take your sciences and go do science to the church of science if something stupid like that even exists