[extropy-chat] NANO/ID: Spooky nanowire crappying bacteria...

[The Avantguardian]

--- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Make"? Using such words is ID talk. It's not as if
> human beings made
> themselves the way they are, outside of our
> intelligence related
> technological features. The bacteria are clearly not
> intelligent (so
> far as we can tell), so the question remains as to
> how a bacteria could
> evolve to this point from some other point?

But Mike, evolutionary biology and game theory have
proved that the most lowly organisms on the bottom of
your shoes behave/evolve rationally on large
time-scales. They all find the most rational strategy
to perpetuate their genes as possible in the face of
stiff competition. If I remember correctly some
species of geobacter also have small iron containing
granules in their cytoplasm that act as a compass
allowing them to directly sense and respond to the
earth's magentic field. Its wonderous and awe
inspiring I know, but it is perfectly natural and not
super-natural.  

> Another
> question is why
> would it do so? If there is more energetic oxygen
> available, dissolved
> in water, why would it need to respirate through
> metals?

Mike, gasoeus oxygen is a relatively new arrival in
the planet's biosphere that roughly correlates with
the emergence of multicellular life. The ability of
eukaryotes to utilize oxygen for respiration is
believed to be the advance that ALLOWED them to become
multicellular. 

There are tons of single-celled organisms that could
care less about oxygen. Many are even poisoned by it.
So if the organism is thriving without having to
utilize oxygen in its native environment, it has no
reason to change. In fact almost every possible
substrate for nutrition and respiration are utilized
by some organism found in some forsaken place on this
planet. Think about all the extremophiles and archaea.
There are organisms that respire sulfur, iron, and a
whole host of other minerals. Others form
relationships with other organisms that respire for
them. Breathing metal sounds bizarre until you
contemplate that plants eat sunlight.   

 From an
> economics point of view, an organism would only
> evolve such a
> respiratory system if that system provided more
> energy than the
> previous system it was using, or if the bacteria was
> attempting to
> colonize a habitat that did not provide for the
> first respiratory
> system.

Your logic here is right, you just got it backwards.
Respiring metal came first, oxygen by some came much
later. If the organism didn't "need" the additional
energy, it never switched.

 
> It still seems just too perfect. 

That's because it IS perfect so long as you realize
that perfect means optimal relative to an environment.

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson


		
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