Real Life Oilix - Life imitates art?

[The Mad Jackyl]

www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1433/

Wow, so this guy has created a microbe using customized DNA that craps oil as a byproduct, just like OILIX did in MG2:SS!

Here's an exerpt: "The new organisms, which Venter says should be multiplying in the lab in the next 18 months, would need high concentrations of CO2 (say, from the smokestack of a coal plant) to convert it to oil at maximum efficiencies. He can alter the octane of the fuel by altering the genes of the organism and, by selecting the best of thousands of molecules, he can "unnaturally select" the most efficient oil producers."

So here we are, in the crux of an international oil crisis, just like during the events of Zanzibar Land. All we need are a couple more ingredients to spell it all out for real.

[A.G.]

Kojima is amazing! I mean really! He came up with that stuff way back... Just you wait, there will be MG tanks walking around soon!

[shadowf0x]

Well no doubt about that AG, remember that in MGS1 Otacon, spoke about how Japan, was the first country to create Bi-pedal legs and since the Japanese are big into anime's such as the Gundam Wing series and the like yes we will see giant mechs like that very soon, I mean sadly we'll all probably be old men but the future is coming to us sooner then we all think....

Now lets hope that some country doesnt spring up in Eurasia calling itself "Zanzibar Land" and takes this guy hostage.....hehehe NOW THAT'd BE SOME sh*t!!! And hopefully his invention can hit commercial markets soon....Oil prices really are ridiculous now.

[spidey24]

I feel like my first two posts are against the grain of everyone else, but MIT has been doing experiments like this for awhile as well. I'm pretty sure Kojima got the idea from the new thoughts of genetic engineering at the time, but like i said this is nothing new. MIT has engineered i believe bacteria or a type of plant, that absorbs CO2 emissions and produces O2. Pretty neat thought, but please dont make me out to be a mean know-it-all.

[A.G.]

I think you misunderstood. I don't believe anyone here thinks that Kojima came up with the concept. It's just interesting to see a lot of the things from his past games coming to life, that's all.

[The Mad Jackyl]

spidey24 said:

I feel like my first two posts are against the grain of everyone else, but MIT has been doing experiments like this for awhile as well.

Since before 1992? When Metal Gear 2 came out?

[A.G.]

Hmm... Jackyl comes back with a valid point. MG2 came out in 1990.

[spidey24]

Your right AG i must have misunderstood. Jackal does make a valid point, so actually I'm not totally sure. My teacher told me and i always assumed it was when he was younger but the process was expensive which kept it exclusively to MIT and thats why it never caught on. If you do dig it up let me know.

[cernex]

There's a problem here: there's no oil crisis just yet (at least not that critical, thanks to the fact places such as Mexico and Venezuela still have plenty of "undiscovered" oil)

And the first one to predict one wasn't MG2, it was Mad Max 2 (1981).

Ya' know, just a little trivia.

[The Mad Jackyl]

There's not an oil crisis in meaning that there is no more oil left or new deposits cannot be found. I would call it a crisis in the fact that oil prices have skyrocketed 491% since 2001 until the present day. This is also thanks to the falling price of the U.S. dollar. Pretty significant. And the part that we're contemplating here though, cernex, is the oil-refining microbe similar to Oilix, which MG2 originated. Not the oil crisis due to nuclear holocaust depicted in Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior to US audiences)

[cernex]

madjackyl said:

There's not an oil crisis in meaning that there is no more oil left or new deposits cannot be found. I would call it a crisis in the fact that oil prices have skyrocketed 491% since 2001 until the present day. This is also thanks to the falling price of the U.S. dollar. Pretty significant. And the part that we're contemplating here though, cernex, is the oil-refining microbe similar to Oilix, which MG2 originated. Not the oil crisis due to nuclear holocaust depicted in Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior to US audiences)

You do know that according to Pemex (only to mention an example), there are about 50+ undiscovered deposits in the Mexican coast, right? And you also know that, even according to USA times, a REAL oil crisis is still almost 40 years away? Are you forgetting both the Canadian tar sands and United States shale oil deposits that are pretty much just "giant reserves" that go almost unexploited to this day?

Also, wasn't the nuclear war was CAUSED by the fuel shortage... which was was Snake stopped from happening in MG2??? I mean, I don't remember the well, but it doesn't make any sense that thanks to nuclear wastes the world's oil disapeared.

I agree with the Oilix bit, though: keeping it to that single statement, yep.

[The Mad Jackyl]

I don't think it's ever mentioned why the nuclear holocaust happens, just that it did. That series isn't great about explaining its origins.

You do know that according to Pemex (only to mention an example), there are about 50+ undiscovered deposits in the Mexican coast, right?

I guess I didn't know about that because they are undiscovered after all.

While there are a lot of undiscovered and even many discovered deposits already known about, the problem most companies have are how to get to it. Part of the reason petroleum products cost so much now is that the oil companies projected a slowdown in production a while back, so to meet this anticipated threat head on, money has to be raised to fund newer drilling technologies such as deep sea oil platforms and with that, the newer breed of drills and the extensive research that has to be done to find new untapped reserves, along with things such as Hurricane Katrina devastating coastlines and sabotaging oil refinery operations. What's frightening is that 40 years isn't that long and it could come much sooner than that, depending on global war conditions, the rate of China's industrialization, and other unseen things. 40 years is the timeline given that oil consumption follows a predictable trend, or an otherwise steady rate. Another thing could happen like the oil crisis of the 1970's. Ask your parents if they remember that one, you'll probably get a few interesting anecdotes about how bad it was.

[cernex]

madjackyl said:

I don't think it's ever mentioned why the nuclear holocaust happens, just that it did. That series isn't great about explaining its origins.

You do know that according to Pemex (only to mention an example), there are about 50+ undiscovered deposits in the Mexican coast, right?

I guess I didn't know about that because they are undiscovered after all.

While there are a lot of undiscovered and even many discovered deposits already known about, the problem most companies have are how to get to it. Part of the reason petroleum products cost so much now is that the oil companies projected a slowdown in production a while back, so to meet this anticipated threat head on, money has to be raised to fund newer drilling technologies such as deep sea oil platforms and with that, the newer breed of drills and the extensive research that has to be done to find new untapped reserves, along with things such as Hurricane Katrina devastating coastlines and sabotaging oil refinery operations. What's frightening is that 40 years isn't that long and it could come much sooner than that, depending on global war conditions, the rate of China's industrialization, and other unseen things. 40 years is the timeline given that oil consumption follows a predictable trend, or an otherwise steady rate. Another thing could happen like the oil crisis of the 1970's. Ask your parents if they remember that one, you'll probably get a few interesting anecdotes about how bad it was.

Oh, I do know about that one: USA overstocked itself of petroleum, and no longer bought it. So the overall oil prices descended to almost 4 bucks-a-barrel.

Don't see the negative side of that, talking about oil in the world. Sure, economy would suck, but still no need to worry ABOUT oil disappearing

And yeah, I agree with most of your post. I still think we're FAR from a crisis, though closer than a decade ago or so.

[shadowf0x]

You forget the Federal stockpile reserves that the U.S Government CONSTANTLY maintains, and GOD knows how much oil that is. Ontop of that other countries to the same so if we were to "run out of oil" at anytime and I mean like no more fossil fuels can be found then the World's governments would have no choice but to open up their private oil reserves, I mean who knows how long that would last us but I bet we'd all be surprised.