Post At15SfB0FkSribhth2 by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
(DIR) More posts by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
(DIR) Post #At0mmXFDYV9hmRRNMu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T10:14:52Z
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I think if anyone wants to "bring back extinct organisms" they should start with an extinct lichen as proof of concept. What's that? You say you don't know of any extinct lichen? Well, that seems like a problem don't you think?What's that? You say you aren't even certain how many genomes you'd need to have the whole organism? Hmm. Maybe we should ponder this. Show me you can bring back a lichen first. Show me that you even *understand* the lichen.
(DIR) Post #At0myhvTfQyONr0lv6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T10:17:04Z
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In lichen the interplay between genomes of distinct families of organisms is more obvious, and you can't just have the algae or the fungi and say you have the whole organism. But this interplay exists at various levels for all living things.
(DIR) Post #At0o6Q93lBtVVYbe8O by rayhindle@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T10:29:38Z
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@futurebird The big question here is “Should We.”We Can “Bring Back” The Woolly Mammoth. Should We?https://youtu.be/W1GAQLKXZj8
(DIR) Post #At0pBIVPgtFvDUx2aO by copiesofcopies@social.coop
2025-04-12T10:41:40Z
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@futurebird weren't lichen also basically the foundation of plant life on earth? Terraforming, baby!
(DIR) Post #At0q8de8jXEXrwKSSe by arjankroonen@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T10:52:24Z
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@futurebird Yep, start with the basis… and in parallel maybe try to let species not go extinct? That’s much easier to do than “let’s bring back a wooly mamoth because that would be so cool!”
(DIR) Post #At0qDGVYBntRYPW9Q0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T10:53:19Z
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@copiesofcopies Not exactly. Lichen are clearly several organisms each with their own DNA living in perfect interdependence. Among them are at least fungi and algae, but possibly also bacteria and others. Lichen challenge our concept of "species" to some extent.
(DIR) Post #At0qecOmuKDXGZOhLE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T10:58:15Z
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@arjankroonen I mean it *would* be cool. I can't deny that part. It's "cool."I don't think I could say "no" to even a totally fake, cos-play speculative Arthropleura. I really think we need giant millipede creatures. Don't you? And... why be constricted by the past? Let us just get on with it and do what we are all thinking of: make giant ants. (Really apple-size ants would be a great improvement from where I stand. Or even two-ounce ants. Why not?)
(DIR) Post #At0qmyHFRpyNRBqzVQ by kw217@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-12T10:59:40Z
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@futurebird like the hippo and its gut bacteria
(DIR) Post #At0qo1NBQKLHKQ89HU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T10:59:55Z
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@arjankroonen Could this be like "grabbing the snoot of the god of chaos again" ? That idea was also irresistible and seemed like a "cool" thing to do... but yeah.It didn't work out so well.
(DIR) Post #At0quKvlcZKbiuJmyG by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T11:01:04Z
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@dedicto @arjankroonen Every now and then I have a fit of depression because I know I'll never see a real living trilobite. It makes my heart ache.
(DIR) Post #At0rOKTNt5o6zVLNxo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T11:06:31Z
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@kw217 Exactly. And to be more serious about this? It scares me that people might think that just saving DNA is anything close to preserving creatures in context, preserving the fragile beautiful ecosystems that we are destroying before we even look at them closely enough to know them.I'm concerned that the *language* of necromancy we are using around this technology is leaving people with the incorrect impression. Enabling more environmental destruction. Could that even be the goal?
(DIR) Post #At0rcw8odPgRs4gkgi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T11:09:09Z
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@dedicto @arjankroonen Excuse me. What the heck is THIS.
(DIR) Post #At0rfhA8mVLgHhcizg by grb090423@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T11:09:33Z
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@futurebird @kw217 Absolutely this!
(DIR) Post #At0ro9uLn5fDklH1lo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T11:11:11Z
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@grb090423 @kw217 That mysterious temperate rainforest? The one with all the mosses, and strange detritivores in the leaf litter? Don't worry about it! I saved it on this here zip disk!
(DIR) Post #At0rtkkQFSu5SSIUyG by BenCgva@c.im
2025-04-12T11:12:10Z
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@futurebird @kw217 💯🎯
(DIR) Post #At0ruaDwrRpD6nVIZc by grb090423@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T11:12:19Z
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@futurebird @kw217 It's head shaking stuff, honestly.😖😓
(DIR) Post #At0sNoEHrskqwZb9fc by Extra_Special_Carbon@mastodon.world
2025-04-12T11:17:35Z
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@futurebird These are people that are absolutely certain that DNA is all you need to know about a person to define them, so it is not surprising that they think they can actually reproduce animals with only DNA.
(DIR) Post #At0sUwKGAGA255nALQ by capnthommo@c.im
2025-04-12T11:18:43Z
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@futurebird @kw217 have you read the piece by Adam Rutherford on the fire fakes? It's on his substack.
(DIR) Post #At0sirHxgm6OVsM14q by bruce@darkmoon.social
2025-04-12T11:21:24Z
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@futurebird If we want to revive extinct species, then perhaps we should focus on the recently extinct, those that might still have a viable ecosystem in which to live, such as the dodo or the Tasmanian tiger.
(DIR) Post #At0tMTHWMl3tdj2LMu by leean00@discuss.systems
2025-04-12T11:28:33Z
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@futurebird Litchen and Moss start forests, that's why.
(DIR) Post #At11Tc4KtP2QYNmnGi by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
2025-04-12T12:59:25Z
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@futurebird @grb090423 @kw217 I saved the photo of it! Now we can print it out and it will be just like real! Another proof that humans defeated extinction.
(DIR) Post #At11e7CfzRWS0lh99M by mega@chaos.social
2025-04-12T13:01:20Z
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@futurebird @grb090423 @kw217 In some sense I think this kinda happens with languages too. Languages have an associated culture, it may be territoriality extended or extremely local. Efforts to preserve language may not recognize regionalisms as important. Efforts to revive them may overly focus on the best recorded sociolect (sometimes this is a formal and "posh" one).Categories are useful to understand the world but they will always fall short of preserving it.
(DIR) Post #At11vUiTp3tfrHrFkO by naught101@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T13:04:32Z
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@futurebird obligatory "this toot is also about gender, and justice, and political systems, and ..."
(DIR) Post #At122FYMb5lcrFLaeO by hopland@snabelen.no
2025-04-12T13:05:44Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen my next mount GIDDY'UP!!!
(DIR) Post #At128b99E7hlZ8a132 by troublewithwords@wandering.shop
2025-04-12T13:06:43Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen T-Rex but mouse.
(DIR) Post #At12MlKABQCzBYUD7A by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T13:09:23Z
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@neckspike @dedicto @arjankroonen Then? You cry "HEY!" And to your surprise it freezes, perched on the open window holding your breakfast muffin, looking over a shoulder with small dark eyes. There are no thoughts in those eyes, but they are deep, they perceive you for a moment. Then? It twitches the whiskers, bounds from the window, gone in a rustle of foliage, the delicious muffin you'd just warmed and buttered with it.On your plate, only a few cold crumbs.
(DIR) Post #At12asCzNtNaagrKue by MrBerard@mastodon.acm.org
2025-04-12T13:11:48Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen The O'Reilly book about... I want to say CSS?
(DIR) Post #At13TIjwxMW6VyEIiW by quinn@social.circl.lu
2025-04-12T13:21:48Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen i refuse to believe they're gone. have we really checked the abyssal planes? the edges of subduction zones? no.
(DIR) Post #At14n3kaUtwDlqVsxs by athamanatha@furry.engineer
2025-04-12T13:36:37Z
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@futurebirdI'm not lichen this very much at all@nat
(DIR) Post #At14xcJcq8Ynrtw6NM by bruce@darkmoon.social
2025-04-12T13:38:32Z
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@futurebird @neckspike @dedicto @arjankroonen "Mother, git me my squirrel gun. Ahm huntin' Leptictidium."
(DIR) Post #At15SfB0FkSribhth2 by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-04-12T13:44:08Z
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@futurebird Geneticists reading through what the Colossal group has done report that they have not even reconstructed the actual dire wolf genome. The technique they used give a sequence that is artificially close to a grey wolf reference: https://bsky.app/profile/jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social/post/3lmlezrhsls2y .Things like "how many chromosomes did they have?" remain unknown.All they have is done is genetically engineered cloned dogs, with ~99% loss in the process.Quite the scam.
(DIR) Post #At16vkk0k6ofKSW5lA by Su_G@aus.social
2025-04-12T14:00:34Z
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@futurebird You've convinced me! Bringing back extinct lichen is a great way to do proof of concept for bringing back extinct organisms, 🙂 #proofOfConcept #lichen #Extinct
(DIR) Post #At17HOAdL9uVhMHmvw by mosttoast@bostonmusic.online
2025-04-12T14:04:18Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen cuddle- shaped
(DIR) Post #At18BY79YY4OktRAvo by csdowns@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T14:14:40Z
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@futurebird they haven't brought back anything. They have just created a genetic modified wolf.
(DIR) Post #At18zz6ZToc4wcDMf2 by Karen5Lund@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T14:23:47Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen Looks like someone crossed a shrew with a t-rex.
(DIR) Post #At1A3lc7gIvaDOL90a by pooserville@dice.camp
2025-04-12T14:35:38Z
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@futurebird Chesterton's Fence, but with lichen.
(DIR) Post #At1AVsQhvwSNSjP8hk by plinth@infosec.exchange
2025-04-12T14:40:35Z
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@futurebird @kw217 in theory, we could bring back passenger pigeons. In practice we can't because they're social animals. The number of them you would need to be viable is not typical. You'd need hundreds of not thousands.
(DIR) Post #At1EjRcSoIiaBMd10q by balglaas@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T15:28:01Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen A failed attempt to recreate the dire wolf.
(DIR) Post #At1LVUfnMKg5HJTuNc by funkula@goblin.camp
2025-04-12T15:18:41Z
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@michael_w_busch @futurebird depressing, but not surprising, that in a moment when the biggest grift going is pretending that llms are the long-anticipated arrival of artificial intelligence, it would turn out that the realization of another scientific dream is a similar scam
(DIR) Post #At1LVVN2lXGxRRiRn6 by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-04-12T16:23:03Z
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@funkula @futurebird Colossal also engineered white coats; while dire wolves apparently were normally reddish brown.Because these animals owe more to G.R.R. Martin than to anything else.
(DIR) Post #At1LVVwqcPudEUT2bA by funkula@goblin.camp
2025-04-12T16:37:17Z
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@michael_w_busch @futurebird so I guess maybe it's less like llms than elon's ongoing grifts: rip off the visuals of a piece of fiction and get praised for realizing that vision even if the tech behind it is no more real than it was when the fiction was madeThinking specifically of the robots that have the I Robot aesthetic but are at best teleoperated and at worst literally a guy in a suit
(DIR) Post #At1c2SF70yRYYzjuSm by jredlund@social.linux.pizza
2025-04-12T19:49:08Z
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@futurebird Didn't Beatrice Potter write a screenplay for "The Lichen that Digested the Earth" before she wrote Peter Rabbit? Maybe I'm remembering that wrong.
(DIR) Post #At1cU0tEJ1Ohq1e47k by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-04-12T19:54:11Z
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@jredlund excuse me WHAT that sounds amazing please be true
(DIR) Post #At1cyTqjCOo6LI0Ez2 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-12T19:59:38Z
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@futurebird "we brought back dinosaurs but they keep dying because we can't recreate their microbiome" is the bleak realistic twist on Jurassic Park I wasn't expecting to think about today.
(DIR) Post #At2bXIcUw7W4tqmXuC by glasspusher@beige.party
2025-04-13T07:18:14Z
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@futurebird well no one understands me either!
(DIR) Post #At5AGpS1VHReVpgTbM by phseiff@toot.phseiff.com
2025-04-14T12:56:42Z
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@futurebird @dedicto @arjankroonen this little guy is also in walking with beasts episode one iirc !! in case you wanna see more of them