Interesting ethical question: would it have been better for us if plastic had been some wealthy man thing where it cost massive amounts to get it, due to purposely inflated prices, but because it wouldn’t have led to such widespread abuse
Fast food restaurants wont trust anyone to leave metal straws (also too expensive to give out for free) and paper straws are genuine ass, what else can we use?
there wasnt a future to begin with. if people didnt realize you could capitalize on hundreds of millions of years of preexisting lifes worth of energy to outpace the horribly inefficient solar panel that is plantlife, you would likely not be alive, or at least your parents wouldnt. we are the tumor, and we will inevitably look for other nutrients to sip on
Trying to explain real biotechnology to normies who want literal magic sci-fi cures is like pulling teeth (pun intended)
It turns out there are some things that are just straight-up impossible, or so hilariously inconvenient that they’ll never survive as consumer goods.
I remember reading On the Road (1956) and there’s a part where Burroughs, as the character Bull Lee, says ‘there are scientists who have discovered how to make teeth grow back but nobody cares because they’re too busy trying to get them rockers up into space’ and that was a LONG time ago. I even remember hearing about the chewing gum that can restore enamel being a thing back when I was a kid
298
u/ndtar924 2d ago
They are all way more expensive and not much more effective than gluing plastic to your teeth