Whales can live longer than a human. They follow Kleiber’s law, so bigger whales will consume less energy per unit of mass, which is corelated with longer lifespan. Bigger whales live longer on average.

But even if they lived thousands of years, they are not immortal. When they die, gravity takes over. Buoyancy doesn’t work if the air inside them escapes. If they are far enough from the coast, they will inevitably fall to the bottom of the sea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall

But life imposes it cycles everywhere with its ecological logic. Various organisms populate the remains as they provide a new opportunity to growth.

A mental experiment

With this carcass on the ocean floor in mind, I want to propose a mental experiment: Imagine you are one of these microorganisms that happened to find one of these carcasses. Big carcasses are great opportunities to grow compared to small animals, so this is a good place to be.

After the organic material is all processed, there is a certain amount of population that the carcass can support by acting as inorganic coral. It is not a lot though.

On the negative side, this is a very remote carcass. It is also releasing radioactive particles whenever is processed. Releasing these particles will reduce the chances of survival as it will contaminate the whole ocean including the rest of the carcass.

So here are some ideas on how to go about it:

  • Grow as fast as you can until the carcass depletes, then deal with the crash later plus the radioactive particles
  • Invest on resilience by stopping growth and fighting competing organisms. Note that this only works temporarily as a growing organism will eventually use more resources to take over
  • Grow as little as possible or not at all but do not let others take over, seeking for a low energy homeostasis
  • Leave entirely renouncing to the available growth

What would you do?

The real life thing

I could write that because of this year unprecedented heat waves, climate catastrophe is around the corner. I feel like this has been true for my whole life, and accelerated considerably. It will still be true many years in the future.

As small organisms part of human society, we have some choices or at least tendencies to act one way or another.

  • Some people see growth as a goal and something to strive for, so there is no drawback to it even if the crash is bigger later
  • Some people will actively invest on local resiliency. This only works if the extra resources cannot be retaken, so timing is critical
  • Some people will not invest on either, and try to live within their means. Other people that grow too much can make this unstable too
  • Some people withdraw entirely and refuse to be part of the system. They move to somewhere far away where they can be self sufficient, though other’s growth can make this unstable over long term too

Any choice that isn’t growth requires good timing and common restrain. Is it possible to choose with competition? What would you do?