holy shit.
The patches were first observed by ground-based telescopes more than a century ago. They ebb and flow over time, changing their distributions and contrasts.
“The particles that make up the dark splotches, have been suggested to be ferric chloride, allotropes of sulfur, disulfur dioxide and so on, but none of these, so far, are able to satisfactorily explain their formation and absorption properties,” explains Yeon Joo Lee, the senior author of the new report.
On the other hand, Limaye notes observations that the particles are about the same size and have the same light-absorbing properties as microorganisms found in Earth’s atmosphere, and scientists, beginning with the noted biophysicist Harold Morowitz and astronomer Carl Sagan, have long speculated about the possibility that the shadowy patches in the clouds of Venus are, in fact, microscopic life." https://news.wisc.edu/mysterious-cloud-absorbers-seen-to-dri...
When was the last time you heard of a real genius? Or something genuinely new, rather than just slightly better than what came before it?
I'm not saying there is no new tech, it just all seems incremental, not revolutionary. When I was younger every day it seemed there was something new. Today, not so much.
(I'm being overly dramatic, but it had severe flaws)
I personally am not a fan of the AI destruction theory because I'd expect AI to replace us and expand into the solar system. If it got to the point where it could kill all organic life, then I'd bet it's unlikely for AI to die off with us as well. Just my opinion though...
Disregard this if you mean “0 or 1 AI makes it out of here”
A bacteria analogue is possibly more of a risk; those can be less fussy.