Dear Universe

[kinkme]

If you wish me to not quote Star Trek in this essay, could you please provide me with references that don't quote Star Trek themselves?

This is the third time I've hit a webpage with the friggin' Horta, I am not putting "Dammit, lecturer, I'm a silicon-based life form, not an Earth-like organism" in my work.

NO.

BAD INTERNET.

Comments

[taleya]

GO ASIMOV! LONG LIVE THE SILICONY!

[taleya]

.....Jesus FUCK I am a nerd

[kinkme]

It's sooooo infeasible though. ;A;

Carbon dioxide is lovely for trees. Silica dioxide is motherfucking sand. TREES NO LIKE SAND.

[taleya]

Trees evolved to this planet and its environment. Don't fall into the fallacy that what has developed on this planet is the only possible way life can function.

And some trees actually do quite well in sand. As do grasses *dons horticulture hat*

[kinkme]

what has developed on this planet is the only possible way life can function.

Oh, indeed, sorry. Ha ha. Writing the essay now and it's specific to "Earth-like life" so I'm stuck in that midset. After this essay, I'll believe in super intelligent shades of the colour blue again.

AND TREES DON'T BREATHE SAND.

[taleya]

Why the fuck not? Transpiration has changed massively over the millenia - and it's still widely varied on the planet today. Kelp. KELP MOTHERFUCKER. IT'S IMMERSED IN WATER, BUT STILL BREATHES.

You're not talking breathing sand sand - there's a gaseous exchange occurring from the spaces in between. Think of a seedling pushing up through the soil. From one viewpoint, until it breaks surface hey! It's breathing dirt! It's actually not though.

And again, this only applies to Earth. You could have trees on other planets with markedly different atmospheres - they'd be basically unrecognisable (fuck, photosynthesis could be none-existent) but they'd be a tree-like construct. It's really only what's on this planet that has the dependency on oxygen mandating growth and size. In another environment without that gas (even our own before the atmosphere started filling with a poisonous, corrosive gas) life can still boing on.