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What is a genetic modification that would cause a massive chain reaction to possibly horrific effects? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Let's keep things simple two rules.

No giving sentience, This is a no brainer issue.
Let's keep it to beings under the Animilia kingdom. "mutated virus/bacteria" is a common trope.

To start:

Let's modify ants to have lungs.

Most insects are constrained by the amount of oxygen they can acquire through their exoskeleton.

Imagine how big they can get if they didn't have that constraint?

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 16 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

In a push to deal with micro plastics, bacteria are developed to be able to break down plastic. Eventually, it gets into the plastic installed for a purpose and starts breaking that down.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Damn I thought you were gonna say it gets into our bodies and eats us as we're becoming part plastic nowadays.

That's a horror movie premise right there.

[–] satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think that's the basic plot to Andromeda.

[–] infinite_ass@leminal.space 5 points 2 weeks ago

It took the world a million years before it figured out how to digest cellulose. It used to be like plastic. Just piled up.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I thought I read about this for real a while back? In a bid to make plastic decay faster, make it out of cellulose with embedded bacteria that can break it down. It still happens too slowly for most plastic packaging

[–] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

bacteria are not animals.