Can Fiction become reality?

[HipChick]

http://ereads.com/2010/05/kathryn-lance-discusses-her-all-too-prescient-novels-about-oil-spills.html

a company that was working to genetically alter bacteria that naturally consume oil so that they might be used to clean up oil spills. I thought, “Great! But what if your car catches it?”

This idea germinated for a while and became the nucleus of the setting for Pandora’s Genes and Pandora’s Children, post-holocaust adventure novels set in the late 21st century. In the world I came to imagine, genetically engineered bacteria were used on a particularly severe oil spill, and mutated to develop a taste for all petroleum products. The new bacteria spread rapidly, destroying the functionality of all machinery that runs on oil products, as well as all things containing plastic and other petro-based items. Among the things destroyed were the fail-safe seals that confined other recombinant-DNA experiments, as well as deadly viruses being engineered in secret germ-warfare research. The result was a greatly de-populated world, with many animal and insect species extinct or deleteriously altered, and with no remnants of what we consider modern technology.
<snip>

When the current Gulf of Mexico oil disaster occurred, and I read that one of the possible solutions was oil-eating bacteria, I must admit to a little chill of déjà-vu. I hope whatever is tried ultimately works, but I can’t help wondering what will happen if the experts begin using engineered bacteria on a large scale, and what other parts of my books might then come true.

[csziggy]

1. Combine that scenario with the idea of nuking the well

Hire a few cheap actors and a mediocre special effects company and you've got a SyFy Channel Movie of the Week! :evilgrin:

But that situation would give us the ultimate "Peak Oil" since there would be little left after the bacteria was through.

[GlennWRECK]

2. Why the padded jab at SyFy?

Very politician-like !
:P

[csziggy]

9. Because made for SyFy movies are formulaic crap

I love science fiction movies. I especially love B grade science fiction movies. But the SyFy movies are horrible - no plot, bad acting, mediocre special effects. Any Twilight Zone episode has better acting and better plots, and when you have those two things, the special effects are pure decoration and not really needed.

Far too many SyFy movies have taken decent actors and turned their performances into embarrassments

SyFy has had some good things so I don't think they are all bad. I like some of their series and about once a year one of their movies is watchable or has a scene worth watching. For instance, in the otherwise horrible movie Basilisk, there is a scene with D&D players in the mall that is pure genius. But overall, it has become a waste of time. It is too bad because they have the potential to turn out good movies.

[HipChick]

3. I hadn't even thought of that..

still at hurricane meets oil slick

[csziggy]

10. Yeah, even if the storm does not hit the rig area no telling where the winds

Will push the oil. Or what it will do with the plumes under the surface. Or the methane under the surface. Best case scenario - the storm stirs things up, breaks up the oil, oxygenates the water and allows biodegrading bacteria to work their magic without them eating all the oil in the world.

Worst case - the stories about massive bubbles of methane under the surface are true, the storm stirs them up, bringing them to the surface and everyone near the Gulf coast dies.

Damn, I'm depressed tonight. Maybe this would help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6uEMOeDZsA

[pscot]

4. Ice Nine

n/t

[tkmorris]

11. Exactly. Don't invent/deploy anything you can't turn off.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Well you can rest easy

bacteria already exist that like oil... they EVOLVED on this world aeons ago. You think these are the first spills in human history?

And that would be the first hole from an editor who has a clue.

That said writing is a revelation on the subconscious, so what will come out depends on how close your angst is to real world things. I have "predicted" quite a bit on Bush et al in the Future Nexus world, part of that was coincidence, part of it was essay disguised as fiction.

[lonestarnot]

7. OOPS WRONG THREAD!

SORRY. :HI:

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Hi

[lonestarnot]

6. GIVEUSOURMONEY.ORG

[Odin2005]

8. Oil-eating bacteria already exist. They live off of natural oil seeps.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. I'm more worried about that scary Stephen King documentary- Maximum Overdrive.

Wherein Dr. King postulates that if a comet passes near the earth it might infect us with green glowing cosmic rays, which will cause machinery to come to life with homicidal bloodlust. There'll be lawnmowers running over people, pop machines shooting people with pop can bullets, and semi-trucks with, for some reason, cabs decorated like the Green Goblin. Also, some guy who looks like Rick Moranis having an awkward watersports fetish for his wife.

Fucking scientists, man. I say we burn down the observatory before this happens.

[AlienGirl]

14. Except that the company that grows the bacteria in real life use the natural strains

They cultivate the already-existing strains of oil-eating bacteria that evolved eating natural oil seeps in the Gulf. They just grow them in huge amounts.

Oh, and except for the fact that oil-eating bacteria are currently not on the table as a serious cleanup option.

Aside from those little details, though, it's *just like* the book, and the Car-Eating-Bacterium Apocalypse is nigh!!1!!

Tucker