Re: Colors of alien plants -- Scientific American

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:06:45 -0700 (PDT), DougL <lampert.doug@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
| On Apr 17, 11:23 am, David Friedman <d...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
| wrote:
|> In article <fu7psu$56...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
|>  mkkuh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Mary K. Kuhner) wrote:
|
|> > Drop a 10% plant into our 1% biosphere and it should provide lots of
|> > story potential--kudzu to the nth power....
|>
|> That's part of the point of the grey goo scenarios that nanotech people
|> worry about.
|
| Most times I don't worry about Grey Goo. It typically violates
| conservation of energy big time (often along with just about every
| other physical law that would be expected to apply to such stuff).
|
| But 10% plants, hmm, THOSE have an energy supply for whatever they are
| supposed to be doing. Put 2% of the total solar energy into growing so
| you outgrow any natural plant by a factor of two or more, put 2% into
| reproduction, and the other 6% into growing the rocket launcher or
| whatever it is that this plant uses for defense against its natural
| enemies (lawn mowers, cattle, people with herbicides, inconvienently
| placed buildings that block the sun, lots of possible natural enemies
| out there).
|
| DougL


Sunflowers (Niven style).


-- 
Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC.    http://andor.dropbear.id.au/~paulcol
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