I wonder if the feces of certain alien species is like some serious gourmet shit to humans. And vice versa. Can we make a closed shit-eater ecosystem with a few species?
I know this is an old post, but it couldn’t be a closed system, because you’re losing energy through the act of digestion. 2000 calories of food are turned into 600 calories of poop (or whatever the numbers are).
Idk why, but I only got a notification about this today, even though the comment is 5d old.
Anyway, you’re right, I meant “closed” in a sense of “they eat each other’s poo”. It’s also possible the difference in calories is made up some extra stuff, with like photosynthesis or whatever.
You could do it with added photosynthesis, but an adult human yields about 35k (k)calories in meat excluding organs, so we can triple that for all of the usable meat. That would mean that, assuming ratios of calorie intake to body size are consistent, the animals would need to consume each other at a rate of one every other month.
With photosynthesis, this can be extended indefinitely, and there are island ecosystems that are relatively isolated. Those depend on different organisms photosynthesizing, consuming the photosynthesizers, and decomposing indigestible remains, but there are examples of plants that photosynthesize and digest flesh or algae that photosynthesize and decompose. Different types of bacteria do all three, but that doesn’t feel too close to the spirit of the question.
It might just be lemmy, but it might also be on my side.
I initially blocked your instance because I wasn’t super into Star Trek and my feed was mostly Star Trek memes when I first signed up. Of course, eventually I succumbed and have watched all of tng and am currently on the last season of voyager, so I unblocked all the Star Trek stuff. Maybe there’s still a lag because of that?
I haven’t noticed this happening with other instances, but it is getting better, now the delay is just 2 days.
I’m happy to hear that you’ve been assimilated, too. I’m a bit ahead of you as I’ve also finished DS9. Just started TOS, but that one is a little rough… 😅
I wonder if the feces of certain alien species is like some serious gourmet shit to humans. And vice versa. Can we make a closed shit-eater ecosystem with a few species?
There’s a coffee we make from the shit of this South American cat
Yeah, I had kopi luwak in mind with this comment, although technically, people consume the undigested beans, clean off all the poo content :(
I know this is an old post, but it couldn’t be a closed system, because you’re losing energy through the act of digestion. 2000 calories of food are turned into 600 calories of poop (or whatever the numbers are).
Idk why, but I only got a notification about this today, even though the comment is 5d old.
Anyway, you’re right, I meant “closed” in a sense of “they eat each other’s poo”. It’s also possible the difference in calories is made up some extra stuff, with like photosynthesis or whatever.
You could do it with added photosynthesis, but an adult human yields about 35k (k)calories in meat excluding organs, so we can triple that for all of the usable meat. That would mean that, assuming ratios of calorie intake to body size are consistent, the animals would need to consume each other at a rate of one every other month.
With photosynthesis, this can be extended indefinitely, and there are island ecosystems that are relatively isolated. Those depend on different organisms photosynthesizing, consuming the photosynthesizers, and decomposing indigestible remains, but there are examples of plants that photosynthesize and digest flesh or algae that photosynthesize and decompose. Different types of bacteria do all three, but that doesn’t feel too close to the spirit of the question.
No idea why I’m notified about your replies with 4 days delay.
It might just be lemmy, but it might also be on my side.
I initially blocked your instance because I wasn’t super into Star Trek and my feed was mostly Star Trek memes when I first signed up. Of course, eventually I succumbed and have watched all of tng and am currently on the last season of voyager, so I unblocked all the Star Trek stuff. Maybe there’s still a lag because of that?
I haven’t noticed this happening with other instances, but it is getting better, now the delay is just 2 days.
I’m happy to hear that you’ve been assimilated, too. I’m a bit ahead of you as I’ve also finished DS9. Just started TOS, but that one is a little rough… 😅
We already do. Plants excrete CO2, humans breathe it in and vice versa.:-)
That’s respiration, I’m talking specifically defecation. I want alien poop! >:(
Well don’t let me stop you… :-P Chase your dreams!
You can’t!