{"id":56760,"date":"2025-09-10T07:54:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=56760"},"modified":"2025-09-10T07:54:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:54:42","slug":"billion-year-old-carbon-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=56760","title":{"rendered":"Billion Year Old Carbon (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We return to Elder JimZim’s<\/strong> question:

What are we?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then a thought occurred to me. Let me quote one of my favorite authors, Neil Stephenson<\/strong>, from one of my favorite books, Cryptonomicon<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when pierced…. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy.<\/p>\n\u2015 Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps a designer line of Hallmark cards from Neal Stephenson?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anyhow, where were we? Oh yes, our big bag of chemicals. So we’re mostly water, right? And water is mostly hydrogen, right? Are we made up of stuff that was created right at the Big Bang? Are we hydrogen early adopters<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Elder G<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exactly right \u2014 our hydrogen is as ancient as it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydrogen and the Big Bang<\/h5>\n\n\n\n