You can waste power atomizing your bowel movements, then reproducing the same identical menu items in the replicator from those recombinant materials, ORRRRR… I run a tube from Janeway’s toilet to this processing assembly here and we have a fresh batch of my famous Fecal Treacle Tarts every morning, and twice on Taco Tuesday. Subtly distinct with every one of the Captain’s previous day’s meals. Extra concentrated flavor when she has had one of my lovely pastries!
I wonder if the feces of certain alien species is like some serious gourmet shit to humans. And vice versa. Can we make a closed shit-eater ecosystem with a few species?
I know this is an old post, but it couldn’t be a closed system, because you’re losing energy through the act of digestion. 2000 calories of food are turned into 600 calories of poop (or whatever the numbers are).
Idk why, but I only got a notification about this today, even though the comment is 5d old.
Anyway, you’re right, I meant “closed” in a sense of “they eat each other’s poo”. It’s also possible the difference in calories is made up some extra stuff, with like photosynthesis or whatever.
You could do it with added photosynthesis, but an adult human yields about 35k (k)calories in meat excluding organs, so we can triple that for all of the usable meat. That would mean that, assuming ratios of calorie intake to body size are consistent, the animals would need to consume each other at a rate of one every other month.
With photosynthesis, this can be extended indefinitely, and there are island ecosystems that are relatively isolated. Those depend on different organisms photosynthesizing, consuming the photosynthesizers, and decomposing indigestible remains, but there are examples of plants that photosynthesize and digest flesh or algae that photosynthesize and decompose. Different types of bacteria do all three, but that doesn’t feel too close to the spirit of the question.
Always the push for more “energy efficiency” may lead to more… “direct” ways to get things done.✅
You can waste power atomizing your bowel movements, then reproducing the same identical menu items in the replicator from those recombinant materials, ORRRRR… I run a tube from Janeway’s toilet to this processing assembly here and we have a fresh batch of my famous Fecal Treacle Tarts every morning, and twice on Taco Tuesday. Subtly distinct with every one of the Captain’s previous day’s meals. Extra concentrated flavor when she has had one of my lovely pastries!
Do I even want to know what’s inside that “coffee”? ☕😯
Sugar and caffeine is enough - what else matters, amiright!?
's all brown, ain’t it?
If it’s brown, gulp it down
We already know, it’s laxatives. So crew can have some soup once in a while. She just thinks “oh it’s the coffee doing its thing” but Neelix knows.
What does he know? He knows everything!!
Janeway’s toilet would just be full of coffee that’s had the caffeine extracted. So…decaf. Blech!
I wonder if the feces of certain alien species is like some serious gourmet shit to humans. And vice versa. Can we make a closed shit-eater ecosystem with a few species?
There’s a coffee we make from the shit of this South American cat
Yeah, I had kopi luwak in mind with this comment, although technically, people consume the undigested beans, clean off all the poo content :(
I know this is an old post, but it couldn’t be a closed system, because you’re losing energy through the act of digestion. 2000 calories of food are turned into 600 calories of poop (or whatever the numbers are).
Idk why, but I only got a notification about this today, even though the comment is 5d old.
Anyway, you’re right, I meant “closed” in a sense of “they eat each other’s poo”. It’s also possible the difference in calories is made up some extra stuff, with like photosynthesis or whatever.
You could do it with added photosynthesis, but an adult human yields about 35k (k)calories in meat excluding organs, so we can triple that for all of the usable meat. That would mean that, assuming ratios of calorie intake to body size are consistent, the animals would need to consume each other at a rate of one every other month.
With photosynthesis, this can be extended indefinitely, and there are island ecosystems that are relatively isolated. Those depend on different organisms photosynthesizing, consuming the photosynthesizers, and decomposing indigestible remains, but there are examples of plants that photosynthesize and digest flesh or algae that photosynthesize and decompose. Different types of bacteria do all three, but that doesn’t feel too close to the spirit of the question.
We already do. Plants excrete CO2, humans breathe it in and vice versa.:-)
That’s respiration, I’m talking specifically defecation. I want alien poop! >:(
Well don’t let me stop you… :-P Chase your dreams!
You can’t!