From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Jul 24 2003 - 10:06:21 MDT
On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, Spike wrote:
> But it does leave some questions, such as why was
> it so late in the game before a archaeo-carbon
> scavenger evolved?
Hmmm, spike you need to expand on this somewhat.
All bacteria are carbon scavengers. So are you
only commenting on the evolution of scavengers
that are exploiting the "large" reserves -- in
which case one has to consider that the "large"
reserves had to evolve into existance before
they could be exploited.
> Carbon based life on this planet was already
> very much in decline before the last few thousand
> years when human started digging coal, [snip]
I would question the use of the term "decline".
Isn't life always adapting to the resource base
that is available? There is no strict requirement
that we are currently aware of that carbon must be
the basis for "life". While it seems preferable
proving it would seem to be very difficult.
Besides one has to assert that the development of
"coal people" or "oil people" could not occur.
Different life forms yes -- but the restrictions
would seem to be on the lack of sunlight for
photosynthesis or the lack of oxygen to oxidize
the reduced hydrocarbons (for energy sources) --
iffy premises to base the conclusion of "decline" on.
R.
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