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In an Emergency, Eat Your Plywood Robot — Parallax Forums

In an Emergency, Eat Your Plywood Robot

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2013-06-12 08:39 in General Discussion
Hey Matt: After the Atomic Flame Deluge and the resulting Simplification, you just TRY to eat your plastic MadeUSA chassis.

Me and Retrobot? We'll get along just fine, thanks. :)

Pulp fiction? http://news.yahoo.com/let-eat-wood-163048625.html

Comments

  • whickerwhicker Posts: 749
    edited 2013-06-09 16:02
    Another cellulose research project where the enzyme to change cellulose costs more in time, energy, and resources than what it's supposed to be substituting.

    It just seems like this was a "me too" research project. Not really designed to produce a novel result, but more like a project of exploring the history surrounding cellulose as a food source.

    Independently, some talking head on the internets told me today that in other primates, the appendix is more developed and can be used to extract energy from their cellulose heavy diets.

    Then I found this article:
    http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/evolit/s05/web1/bfremstad.html


    So maybe it's a case of studying how these animals are able to do it? (other than blanket statements about housing bacteria, define and reproduce the mechanism cheaply).
    http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/vestiges/appendix.html
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-06-09 17:15
    Personally, I think fresh water will be the first issue. I've wondered if 'capturing' rain is a workable idea.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2013-06-09 23:43
    Acid rain?

    Seriously, gathering rainwater has been a 'workable idea' for thousands of years, but for how much longer we can do that depends entirely on pollution levels.
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2013-06-12 08:13
    you just TRY to eat your plastic MadeUSA chassis
    erco- you just don't get it. Come with me my son, allow me to help keep your plywood based cranium from de-laminating...

    MadeUSA was never meant to be eaten. MadeUSA is FDA approved for direct food contact - plywood is not.

    Me thinks your edible plywood needs something to sit on while it's "carved up" into bite-sized pieces...

    -MattG
  • Dave HeinDave Hein Posts: 6,347
    edited 2013-06-12 08:39
    So rather than using enzymes or chemicals to make wood suitable for human digestion we could just unleash an army of termites and then eat the children of the termites. Or if that's too low on the food chain we could feed the termites to chickens and eat the chickens.
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