Saturday, March 5, 2022

Why mixing planetary biospheres is not a good idea

In Star Wars and other similar Sci Fi stories, we see people traveling from one planetary biosphere to another without so much as a face mask. If we were to do this in real life, even with a planet that has the exact same conditions as ours, it would be devastating. The reason? Locally based microorganisms. A virus taken from a planet around Alpha Centauri and taken to Earth would do ten times the damage to our entire species compared to the smallpox epidemic brought to the Americas by the Europeans. There is the distinct possibility that a single individual contracting a strange alien disease that our immune systems were not built to handle could wipe out the human race. 

Even on a perfectly ideal planet with no major predators or sentient races, where the soil is conducive to human food farming, we will almost certainly find a huge number of diseases that, if picked up by humanity, could cause the worst plague in the history of mankind. We've already done enough damage by mixing biospheres here on Earth. Can you imagine the ecological disasters that would happen if we mixed two planetary biospheres, or even more than that?

Until we develop the technology to make ourselves completely immune to disease, we're going to have to wear full protective covering on any planet that has life, no matter if we can breathe the air or not. 

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