Jonas Brothers Were Right?
You know how cool it would be to live underwater? Way cool. If we could breathe water, we would be able to make houses fairly easily, without having to worry about air and circulation and making countless trips to the surface for more air tanks. Because we have to intake oxygen, it is unlikely that this will be a future for us for quite some time. Even though the water covers such a large portion of the earth, we just cant exist in it full time because of how we evolved.
Well, is there a work around to this situation? what if there was a way to eventually be able to exist in the ocean blue for 80 percent of your life or more? What would it take for us to have that option in the foreseeable future? Well I can think of a step we can start taking to achieve this dream.
Is there a way to not breathe oxygen? Well, not realistically for people that are alive today. There is a liquid that we have concocted that is breathable, but it is really hard on your lungs (here is a quick google search link that will give you the main points, go look into it yourself if you are curious. https://zidbits.com/2011/02/can-humans-breathe-liquids/ ). The problem with this, is that it is not a long term fix. People can breathe this stuff for a while, but you get this sensation called “my lungs are full of water” and you feel like “I’m dying right now.”
Interestingly enough, there was a point in each persons life where they did not need to breathe any air. Though you probably don’t recall what it was like because it was before you were born.
What if there was a way to keep the same feeding system going after a child was born? If we were to re attach the umbilical chord to a machine that would continue to feed the child nutrients, and have the child wear a respirator style mask so it would continue to breathe a substance akin to the amniotic fluid. The child may be able to continue living outside the womb, without “activating” the lungs, rather it would continue to get what it needed from the respirator and the machine hooked to the umbilical chord.
Once technology develops to a point where we can just have this machine attached to a persons back, and insert cartridges of nutrients into it, it may be possible to have people walking around that don’t need air to survive.
Even further down the line, we may be able to mix our DNA and replicate portions of a mothers body that produces the amniotic fluid, and have it spliced into our lungs, and have our lungs surgically closed off from inside the throat, so that our body would not need to take in oxygen.
There are probably other hurdles that we would have to overcome that I don’t know about, but if some version of this theory can work out, it would be amazing to see underwater societies develop, and watch humanity take to the open ocean in a whole new way.