Thanks captain google pants lol

Also, I should have chosen my wording more carefully- I said significant proportion of microbial life, when what I was thinking about specifically are the microbes critical to nutrient fixation and soil health. My apologies for having the dumb.

Interesting. 140f for how long? I imagine this is for soil disinfection over a relatively short period of time.

I wonder what happens when the earth “bakes” at a (slightly) higher temp for an extended period of time? Does it create a pasteurizing effect? If it doesn’t kill microbes outright, how much could the higher avg temp affect metabolism?

In the case of one-shot high temps like in Death Valley that you mentioned, I imagine the top layer of microbes could get cooked but I would expect there’s probably “replenishment from a microbial reservoir deeper in the soil.

Do constant, slightly higher temps have effects that penetrate deeper? And will they penetrate deep enough to significantly damage microbial reservoirs?

I know they’re not. That’s what keeps me awake a night. Say the world warms +2-3° C by 2030. What do yyou think the soil microbe survival rate will be?

The only paper I mention is the one estimating full brain emulation timelines.

What I wrote RE: microbes is a personal opinion/guess taking into account the fact that we’re warming much, much faster than the “official” projections, and pondering what the temperature increase tolerance of microbes critical to fix soil nutrients.

I would LOVE to hear what a microbiologist would have to say about this.

I agree that if there were to be a tech that could save us, it would be the singularity, or something very close.

The problem is is that our remaining time is short, MUCH shorter than what’s spoken about in the media. Even if we were to get a superintellgience by, say, 2030, we might already be warmed to the point where a significant proportion of microbial life may not be able to survive, even if we go full speed at implementing any climate saving tech it were to produce. At least, not in time for the vast majority of us to survive. No microbes = no plants = no food = no air.

Also, the road to the singularity could be much longer than what we need to be able to save ourselves.

At the end of the day, what we call “AI” isn’t “intelligent” at all. They’re very accurate probability engines that operate at very low power compared to biological brains, not to mention anything of the fact that brains exhibit quantum qualities, bringing into question whether classical processors could EVER deliver the performance needed to come close, even if you were to weave together trillions of 0/1 transistors, as the current approach takes.

I read a RIKEN study about a month ago that tried to create a timeline for various full brain emulations that put the date for the primate (gorilla, IIRC) emulation after 2040 based on the current rate of semicon fabrication tech advancements.

I like your positive attitude, I agree that tech should always be considered, I too hope that we can save our planet. But I seriously wonder if we’re already out of time, with a few years of relative plenty left, to be followed by a rapid collapse.