Something that might be scarier than Artificial Intelligence

http://www.space.com/28320-asteroid-mining-bacteria-microbes.html

Here is an interesting article from Space.com about a company that is investigating the use of microbes to harvest materials from asteroids and meteors. Interesting concept but, I’d like to point out some potential problems and also neat Sci-Fi story fodder.

Microbes are funny little things. They usually have one goal and they do it pretty well. Injecting them into a near-Earth body might accomplish some interesting results. Microbes also have other interesting characteristics. Given enough time, they tend to evolve, funny how that happens.

I suppose that it would be possible to inject some microbes into an asteroid that is flying by, hoping that when the asteroid passes by again the microbes will have processed the materials and we just need to go and mine them. However, any microbes given many years in space ‘by themselves’ could tend to take on different characteristics. Maybe after 75+ years in space, they arrive back at Earth hungry and with a different agenda. They might even approach Earth and say, “hey that planet looks yummy!”

The link within the story is interesting and it goes into more detail about the company’s plans. I suggest you follow the link and check it out.

 

Ray Jay Perreault

Science Fiction