The Green Goo scenario as presented is plausible in principle, but not with its timeline. There is no plausible way for a biological system, especially one based on plants, to spread that fast. Even if we ignore issues like physical obstacles, rivers, mountains, roads, walls, oceans, bad weather, pests, natural diseases, natural fires, snow, internal mutations etc, things that on their own would slow down and disorganize the Green Goo, there is also the issue of those pesky humans with heir chainsaws, herbicides, and napalm. Worst case scenario, GG would take decades, even centuries to do us irreparable harm, and by that time we would either beat it, or nuke it to glass, or fuck off to Mars where it can’t chase us.
Green Goo Scenario would be absolutely devastating, and very, very, very bad, but not even close to apocalyptic. I find it extremely unlikely that any kind of Green Goo could beat Earth’s ecosystems passive defenses in any kind of timeline that matters, let alone active offense from technologically advanced humans. Earth already has a fast spreading malevolent biological intelligence with the means to sterilize continents, its called Homo Sapiens.
There is no plausible way for a biological system, especially one based on plants, to spread that fast.
We are talking about a malevolent AI that presumably has a fair bit of tech infrastructure. So a plane that sprinkles green goo seeds is absolutely a thing the AI can do. Or just posting the goo, and tricking someone into sprinkling it on the other end. The green goo doesn’t need decades to spread around the world. It travels by airmail. As is having green goo that grows itself into bird shapes. As is a bunch of bioweapon pandemics. (The standard long asymptomatic period, high virulence and 100% fatality rate. Oh, and a bunch of different versions to make immunization/vaccines not work) It can also design highly effective diseases targeting all human crops.
The Green Goo scenario as presented is plausible in principle, but not with its timeline. There is no plausible way for a biological system, especially one based on plants, to spread that fast. Even if we ignore issues like physical obstacles, rivers, mountains, roads, walls, oceans, bad weather, pests, natural diseases, natural fires, snow, internal mutations etc, things that on their own would slow down and disorganize the Green Goo, there is also the issue of those pesky humans with heir chainsaws, herbicides, and napalm. Worst case scenario, GG would take decades, even centuries to do us irreparable harm, and by that time we would either beat it, or nuke it to glass, or fuck off to Mars where it can’t chase us.
Green Goo Scenario would be absolutely devastating, and very, very, very bad, but not even close to apocalyptic. I find it extremely unlikely that any kind of Green Goo could beat Earth’s ecosystems passive defenses in any kind of timeline that matters, let alone active offense from technologically advanced humans. Earth already has a fast spreading malevolent biological intelligence with the means to sterilize continents, its called Homo Sapiens.
We are talking about a malevolent AI that presumably has a fair bit of tech infrastructure. So a plane that sprinkles green goo seeds is absolutely a thing the AI can do. Or just posting the goo, and tricking someone into sprinkling it on the other end. The green goo doesn’t need decades to spread around the world. It travels by airmail. As is having green goo that grows itself into bird shapes. As is a bunch of bioweapon pandemics. (The standard long asymptomatic period, high virulence and 100% fatality rate. Oh, and a bunch of different versions to make immunization/vaccines not work) It can also design highly effective diseases targeting all human crops.