Timeline for Conquering the Galaxy with DNA - What is the best vector?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
27 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 24, 2019 at 7:59 | comment | added | Artur Biesiadowski | Use simple bacteria. Unfortunately, if they hit young planet with a lot of mutagenic properties and you forget to check on them in time, they might evolve into thing you wanted to avoid in first place (see Earth). | |
| Jan 24, 2019 at 4:50 | comment | added | Mazura | they would presumably be ineffective against alien life forms. Cue Ian Malcolm.... @CortAmmon - I love frame challenges, because in this case the answer is: sure because science makes life boring. | |
| Jan 24, 2019 at 1:15 | comment | added | Cort Ammon | Are you interested in frame challenge answers? The probability that any untargeted creature will be successful enough to disrupt life on a given planet is basically 0, so it's really better for the Emperor to save their money. | |
| Jan 24, 2019 at 0:29 | comment | added | Our | If one of the targeted planet has an atmosphere, they will basically burn in the re-entry. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 22:40 | answer | added | sonvar | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 21:32 | comment | added | SRM | That should be “cure” not “cute”. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:48 | comment | added | SRM | @chasly No selling the cute. Interstellar economics only works for immortals. Relativity is a monster that eats you one side or the other, and space (as they say) is really big. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:44 | answer | added | The Square-Cube Law | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:29 | history | edited | The Square-Cube Law |
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| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:28 | answer | added | Gage Ervin | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:23 | answer | added | Graipher | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:05 | comment | added | chasly - supports Monica | @ MJ713 - They could have any kind of life on them. The Emperor doesn't care as long as he wipes them out or at least causes the maximum inconvenience. Maybe he can sell them the cure. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 20:04 | comment | added | chasly - supports Monica | @vlaz - Let's say a time scale is 1000 years. The cockroaches are a probably shot in the direction that settlers are planning to move next. If it affects humans then if they are enemies the Emperor won't tell them the key to eradicate the cockroaches but mainly it's for non-humans. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 19:59 | history | edited | chasly - supports Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 23, 2019 at 17:07 | answer | added | Yakk | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 16:53 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | Why is it assumed that cockroaches would devastate the native biosphere? Sure, they may disrupt particular ecosystems, but eradicating all planetary life is an awfully far stretch. In some cases, the native biosphere will be the one to eradicate the cockroaches, not the other way around. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 16:41 | comment | added | MJ713 | Should we assume that these alien planets don't have intelligent life on them, or is that possible? | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 14:50 | comment | added | VLAZ | OK, so to summarize - it's a biologically-based solution, it is largely untargeted but possibly directed, it leaves the natural environment intact for the humans to use, it has to be able to be "neutralized" in some fashion so humans are not harmed by it. Also, I'll assume "safe for humans" is not an intrinsic requirement - so you could theoretically use this against other humans but if the solution ends up somehow able to target only non-humans that is also fine. I'm not missing anything, right? Final question - what sort of time scale does this have to work in? A year? 100 years? | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 14:41 | comment | added | chasly - supports Monica | @vlaz - The idea is that as humans expand to colonise the Universe, they find that all other planetary life has been wiped before they reach them. Thus an expanding sphere of destruction is planned. By making the forerunners DNA based they can ensure some control mechanism but avoid completely poisoning the environment before settlers arrive. I'm willing to allow some flexibility in terms of other means (and such may be up-voted) but, to be fair to others who have already answered, I feel obliged to choose a biological solution. I assume alien biology is non-DNA-based. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 14:32 | comment | added | VLAZ | Temporarily parked my answer pending a re-write. So, I'll ask clarifying questions here - do you want only biologically based ways to make others extinct or would other means also be acceptable? How much patience/time is allotted to this? Finally, how targetted should this be - do the attack planet by planet (even if you do many at once) or just try to have everything and anything non-human in the entire universe destroyed? | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 13:46 | history | edited | chasly - supports Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 23, 2019 at 12:46 | answer | added | Alex2006 | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 11:10 | answer | added | Mołot | timeline score: 9 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 11:04 | answer | added | Kyyshak | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 11:02 | comment | added | Jishin Noben | Tardigrades are resilient. "Tardigrades are considered to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts." "Tardigrades are one of the few groups to have survived Earth's five mass extinctions." As such they occur often in speculations like panspermia. Looking that up you might find other good candidates. | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 10:56 | answer | added | Separatrix | timeline score: 23 | |
| Jan 23, 2019 at 10:52 | history | asked | chasly - supports Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |