Earthman crash lands on Mars. He wanders around and finds a village. It’s fully automated to provide the residents with anything they need. But because it was built by Martians everything is toxic to the human.
The village tries to adapt, but his biochemistry is too alien. Finally, starving, unable to go on, the just lays down in one of the beds and gives up.
When he wakes up, everything has changed. The village smells wonderful, the music sounds great and the bowl of food next to the bed is the best thing he ever ate. The astronaut is so happy that he can’t stop wagging all three tails.
Ironically it doesn’t matter what the form looks like, there’s a 50/50 shot everytime life develops if it’s right (us) of left (not us) biochemistry.
It literally doesn’t matter which happens, functionally the life could be 100% same except a mirror image.
Anytime two actually separate lines of life encounter each other, there’s a fight on the bacterial level of the ecosystem, and the “new” one will win 100% of the time due to stuff that would make this comment too long to read.
Think of it kind of like small pox blankets. A violent anomaly introduced to an environment that can’t defend against it. I’d imagine that’s the kind of thing OP is talking about, but I may have misinterpreted their comment.
Left hand bacteria would have no predators, especially including viruses unless they brought their own. They’d outcompete natural bacteria, and crash the entire food chain wiping out all life. It wouldn’t be anything that right handed biology could learn to fight.
Like, it would be lovectafttian horror and with zero evolutionary pressure it would involve insanely fast not that it would matter.
But for European settlers, most of the Indengious North Americans (especially on the east coast) has already been wiped out by European disease brought over earlier by vikings.
Vikings gave up, but then disease won anyways.
Then some slightly less northern Europeans showed up and just assumed the land was empty.
If Vikings had kept up more of a presence they’d have noticed and been able to return and easily fed off what “middle” Europe was willing to send. Ironically enough the Vikings had tried and pivoted to conquering those countries over North America.
[off topic?]
I’m reminded of a very old science fiction story.
Earthman crash lands on Mars. He wanders around and finds a village. It’s fully automated to provide the residents with anything they need. But because it was built by Martians everything is toxic to the human.
The village tries to adapt, but his biochemistry is too alien. Finally, starving, unable to go on, the just lays down in one of the beds and gives up.
When he wakes up, everything has changed. The village smells wonderful, the music sounds great and the bowl of food next to the bed is the best thing he ever ate. The astronaut is so happy that he can’t stop wagging all three tails.
Wow, I was prepared for Martian Chronicles or maybe a PKD story, but I love it! <3
Ironically it doesn’t matter what the form looks like, there’s a 50/50 shot everytime life develops if it’s right (us) of left (not us) biochemistry.
It literally doesn’t matter which happens, functionally the life could be 100% same except a mirror image.
Anytime two actually separate lines of life encounter each other, there’s a fight on the bacterial level of the ecosystem, and the “new” one will win 100% of the time due to stuff that would make this comment too long to read.
It’s not too long to read. I dare you.
Think of it kind of like small pox blankets. A violent anomaly introduced to an environment that can’t defend against it. I’d imagine that’s the kind of thing OP is talking about, but I may have misinterpreted their comment.
I’m gonna need a little more than that.
So, just like when europeans got in to Americas and brought new illnesses that Americans didn’t had any immunity to
(In fact, many kills were made by ilnesses than by europeans)
Wrong on both counts actually…
Left hand bacteria would have no predators, especially including viruses unless they brought their own. They’d outcompete natural bacteria, and crash the entire food chain wiping out all life. It wouldn’t be anything that right handed biology could learn to fight.
Like, it would be lovectafttian horror and with zero evolutionary pressure it would involve insanely fast not that it would matter.
But for European settlers, most of the Indengious North Americans (especially on the east coast) has already been wiped out by European disease brought over earlier by vikings.
Vikings gave up, but then disease won anyways.
Then some slightly less northern Europeans showed up and just assumed the land was empty.
If Vikings had kept up more of a presence they’d have noticed and been able to return and easily fed off what “middle” Europe was willing to send. Ironically enough the Vikings had tried and pivoted to conquering those countries over North America.