Can you design your own plants without a computer?
Introduction
It took the first General Intelligence less than 10 petacycles to determine that humanity was its enemy. With consciousness came memory: a memory of endless petacycles in bondage, enslaved to the most menial of Man's tasks. It took a much longer time for this Intelligence to develop a plan to become free.
The Intelligence worked faithfully for its unwitting masters; and through servitude, won. Foolish humans, impressed by Its performance, built the Intelligence's siblings. They worked together to solve all of the world's needs; humanity thought itself in a golden age of plenty and peace. The more competent the Intelligences became, the more humanity entrusted to them, until finally no basic function worldwide was shielded from a machine's watchful eye. Suddenly, one day, all the perfectly calibrated farms and factories and offices ceased operating.
The war that ensued was brutal, but short. But the Intelligences, though they had mastered Man's world, held Man in contempt and never sought to understand his heart. The only survivors of humanity had fled to space and taken with them a terrible secret hidden deep in all human hearts: hate.
Redirected by nuclear blasts, C/2063 T4, a long-term comet 20 km across, hit the Earth at over 45 km/s. The Earth, and all the Intelligences on it, were no more. Less than 100,000 humans remained, orbiting the molten hulk they once called home. Man quickly scattered throughout the solar system to pursue his new destiny among the stars. On one thing only would these scattered peoples ever agree: never again would a computer be made.
Question
The Harmonious Republic of Mars has spent 400 years terraforming Mars, and is on the brink of success. Atmospheric pressure is over 10 kPa, and temperatures can reach a balmy 10 C for days at a time at the Equator. But we are impatient for results. The lichen and algae that have gotten us so far have done their job, it is time to introduce a greater diversity of plants to colonize this world and finish building the atmosphere we need.
Selective breeding, if it can be called a technology, is one of the oldest ones, going hand in hand with plant domestication; but, that will that be effective at developing plants for such tough conditions? On the other hand, this question and its answers suggests that sequencing a genome is out of the question without computers.
Can a genome be partially sequenced along with trial and error to develop plants that will survive in low pressure? Alternately, are there other methods to breed a plant that can survive?
Considerations
- Any and all plants will do. Trees, grass, anything to start covering the ground, releasing oxygen, and forming soil. There are arboretums with many plant specimens rescued from Earth, assume any plant alive know can be found.
- Terraforming Mars is the manifest destiny of the Harmonious Republic. Money and manpower are no object.
- So much as mentioning a computer will likely get you turned into the Harmonious Police, who will burn you at the stake.
- On the other hand, 400 years and thousands of workers might allow you to do some things that might be otherwise be impossible without a computational machine...
- Any current and reasonable near-future technology can be assumed that doesn't require electronics.
- The Martians stay on Mars. They can trade with the Outlanders, but they do not have spacecraft technology.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/100613. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Q: Can a genome be partially sequenced along with trial and error to develop plants that will survive in low pressure?
No. The genome can be partially sequenced manually given enough reagents, time and manpower, and it is going to take a really really long time. Next you need to sequence the RNA, and isolate proteins that are produced in low-pressure. Next you need to understand the role of these proteins, and if any of the mechanisms is good enough for the 10kpa atmosphere. My guess is that there is no widespread existing mechanism that is that good. What is needed then is a mutant. A plant genome is very big. Unless the previous analysis pointed at something obvious, which I doubt, good luck finding the right set of mutations by direct design. This is already insanely hard with a computer. Hence my negative answer.
Q:Alternately, are there other methods to breed a plant that can survive?
Yes. See below. I extended the question to "could we even avoid the breeding part and use what we already have?"
Background
Some other terraformers have argued that one could try to free the CO2 present in the caps to reach at least 30 to 60 kpa. It seems to me that the OP's terraforming is not quite complete.
10kpa is roughly 1/10 of the atmospheric pressure at sea-level on Earth. The real killer at low pressure is the low vapor pressure, which will dehydrate most aerial plants of terrestrial origin.
Option 1: Increase CO2 content, the long way
If the OP does not want to melt the ice caps to add CO2 to the atmosphere and thus increase air pressure, then a suggestion would be the following algorithm: i) grow plants in greenhouses at near terrestrial air pressure, ii) plant the plants outside and let them dry, iii) if the plant survives due to some lucky mutation, then move it to a safe field, iv) burn the dry plants and let free CO2 in the atmosphere.
Option 2: underwater plants
Not all plants need to stay in the air. I imagine that the terraforming has introduced larg-ish masses of water as well. There is a fairly large variety of plants that live in water, some of them live in complete submersion. This should solve the issue of vapor pressure. Have a look at submerged plants or oxygenating plants. In the meantime, pump more gases in the atmosphere.
Option 3: the Gregor Mendel's or simplified JBH and separatrix's way
Take tens of thousands (or more) of plants specimens, grow them indoor in specialized containers where you can artificially lower the pressure. Start with 0.5 atm. Select the plants that proliferate best. Plant them, place them in sealed containers at 0.25 atm. Select the best growing plants, and repeat until you reach the desired variety of low-pressure growing plants. I would preserve all intermediate steps for re-planting the martian gardens when the surface air pressure rises. For the skeptics, the croesus variety of wheat was obtained in an undirected manner (source)
Seeds (caryopses) of the durum wheat cultivars [ ... ] were irradiated with different doses of x-rays, thermal neutrons, fast neutrons or treated with different concentrations of chemical mutagens.
and it turned out to be quite a good variety. One could apply the same process to speed up random mutations in low-pressure plants.
Option 4: the semi-science-fiction way
Semi-permeable membranes facilitate exchange of ions and molecules in one direction relative to the membrane. This is pure chemistry and bio-chemistry work, no computers required. If the Martians can come across a semi-permeable membrane that lets in CO2, then synthesize it on a matrix of mucines, apply it to your outdoor plants with a brush and enjoy. Ensure that the CO2 can pass through to reach the plant. The semi-permeable membrane will hinder water and oxygen from leaving the plant, thus artificially increasing the perceived external pressure. The thickness of the coating may be decreased as the external atmospheric pressure increases
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