[HN Gopher] Science fiction inspired by an HN thread (5 min read)
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Science fiction inspired by an HN thread (5 min read)
Inspired by some awesome comments in:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33453037
Author : user052919
Score : 47 points
Date : 2022-11-14 18:27 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (davidlaprade.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (davidlaprade.github.io)
| philipkglass wrote:
| For a similar, grim, and much longer SF story see the _Rifters_
| trilogy by Peter Watts:
|
| https://www.tor.com/2012/08/14/psychopaths-at-the-bottom-of-...
|
| Spoiler: a biologically incompatible branch of life discovered in
| the deep ocean starts to outcompete everything on land once it's
| brought to the surface, leading to catastrophic breakdown of
| civilization.
|
| "Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read
| Peter Watts." -- James Nicoll
| user052919 wrote:
| Oh awesome! I'll look forward to reading this. Thanks for the
| link
| tablespoon wrote:
| > Spoiler: a biologically incompatible branch of life
| discovered in the deep ocean starts to outcompete everything on
| land once it's brought to the surface, leading to catastrophic
| collapse of food production and civilization.
|
| Isn't that also part of the backstory of Interstellar?
| RosanaAnaDana wrote:
| Great short story. Reminds me of something I would find in on of
| the collections of short stories le Guin or Vonnegut would show
| up on as a second or third editor.
| user052919 wrote:
| Oh man, that's a _massive_ complement. So glad you enjoyed it
| :)
| benmdi wrote:
| Fun quick read. Scary part to me is that this seems like
| something that could actually happen pretty easily.
| RosanaAnaDana wrote:
| I mean, engineering whole metabolisms pretty far off. Not out
| of the picture but pretty far off.
| pcrh wrote:
| Nice!
|
| Apparently one organism can use L-glucose, Pseudomonas
| caryophylli [0]. It's a plant pathogen [1]. No doubt other micro-
| organisms can as well. So would be a great reset of evolution
| back to the Cambrian era?
|
| [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40609/
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkholderia_caryophylli
|
| Edit: following this "great chiral collapse", the new evolution
| is multi-chiral providing a vastly greater range of protein
| structures, biochemical reactions, etc, etc...
| user052919 wrote:
| Sweet, I actually love that! Upregulating a plant pathogen
| feels like it could be disastrous. If I had a better grasp of
| ecology I'd have thought of more examples like, haha. Might
| include it in a future iteration if you don't mind!
| dang wrote:
| Reading material can't be a Show HN, so I've taken that out of
| the title.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
| user052919 wrote:
| Ah, my bad. I didn't realize this was an official category.
| Thanks for correcting
| soperj wrote:
| Nice concept. I really liked the beginning, but it comes a bit
| unglued at the end, too much explaining and not enough showing.
| user052919 wrote:
| You know, someone else gave me similar feedback as well. I'm
| kind of reluctant to make it longer, but might be a better
| story if it is. Like: maybe have something about the government
| responses to it and what happens, etc, work some of the
| explanations in there. Going to keep this in mind, appreciate
| it!
| Nekhrimah wrote:
| Just to be contrarian, I like the ending. Always be wary of
| over-explaining in stories, especially in science fiction.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Nice prose, good explanations.
|
| A little digression can be interesting.
|
| I wonder about the plot: why not create the other bug, that
| converts glucose back? Then it'd reach an equilibrium.
| user052919 wrote:
| Thanks so much for reading it! That's a really interesting idea
| -- honestly I hadn't thought of it. I guess the rough thought
| is that too much ecological damage is done too fast for us to
| reverse it. But I'll keep mulling this over
| samcgraw wrote:
| Awesome read! You should write on Storylocks :)
| choeger wrote:
| Why would L-glucose taste the same and have the same effects on
| mood, etc. if nothing in nature could interact with it? I am not
| an expert in chemistry or molecular biology, but that seems odd.
| user052919 wrote:
| I was wondering if anyone would catch that! Yeah, it's
| definitely part of the "fiction" here. L-glucose can bind to
| some things, e.g. taste receptors. "Nothing in nature can
| interact with it" was definitely an over-simplification
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