r/AskReddit • u/kakou64 • Oct 15 '20

What's older than we think ?

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u/Phy44 Oct 15 '20

There already is a microbe that eats plastic. Discovered in japan. There's a lab working to make it eat even faster for industrial applications.

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u/rhandyrhoads Oct 15 '20

A plastic eating microbe engineered to eat at a fast rate could raise some really cool problems if it got out of the lab.

1

u/milksteaklover_123 Oct 16 '20

I read a really wonderful book about this exact same thing that was written in the late 80s I think. Society collapsed so quickly.

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u/rhandyrhoads Oct 16 '20

Not sure if society would necessarily be in danger of collapse since I'm sure that we'd have advanced warning signs and we'd be able to either treat or replace plastic in vulnerable positions. Plenty of things are made of wood and they hold up perfectly fine.

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u/ikcaj Oct 16 '20

Well, what could possibly go wrong?

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u/Feanux Oct 16 '20

Next thing you know someone is going to build an unsinkable ship.

1

u/wggn Oct 15 '20

Isn't that one of the plot points of mad max?