Discussion thread. Intellectual discussion thread.
#1 The mimivirus. A "virus" so huge that it is more complex than many parisitic bacterium out there. And, it is suspected, of being a simple form of an entire new class of SRMs (Self-replicating-materia, i.e. life).
Apparently, viruses are not breakaways of life, but we are breakaways of viri.
My thoughts: This has the potential for being a gateway into real self-replcating nanobots. One's complex enough to have onboard computers capable of recieving and obeying directions. And that my friends, is one fucking massive feat for something a few billionths of the mass of your calculator, much less your 40 pound computer.
Another thought: If one of these complex viruses was to suddenly start re-aquirring it's self-repliation genes, it would be bad.
#2 Hyperdrive: A new and only just recently come to light mathmatical theory seems to show that creation of a "Drive" that allows shifting into other dimensions is possible.
My thoughts: At first I scoffed at the idea of something like this being discovered and made so easily, that it was just a hoax, but now, I'm pretty well convinced that the mathametical theory the "hyperdrive" is based on is sound, and therefore, the hyperdrive itself.
What I worry about is not the possibilty of getting somewhere faster than the speed of light in this dimension, but the means of getting there. And that really worries me. So we've just torn a hole through this dimension into another one. Great. But, what happens then? Do we suddenly have a massive rejection of the fundamental differences of these dimensions? Do we suddenly get a release of energy making the sudden and total release of all the energy in the galaxy look like a drop in an ocean? Do we suddenly have alien monsters pouring through to anhilate all matter? Does the gate work, but when we go through our baryonic matter distengrates in this foreign environment? Are we fine, but does it screw with the minds of the initial astronaughts so horribly that when they reemerge, they're already dead from total cessation of brain function? Are there unimagninable and horrible dangers lurking on the other side?
Not that I'm complaining, I'd probably volunteer to be the first one through, but, I've read way too much hard-sci-fi based in known and presumed assumptions on the basic fabric of the unverse, to not be extremly paranoid about the... possibilities.
