all 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] 18 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

My guess is very, very bad. It's basically a collection of random oily organic compounds with all manner of other elements mixed in. So my guess would be something like used, burnt motor oil.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [โ€“] 13 points 3 weeks ago

    Why would anyone downvote this question? It's a good one.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 5 points 3 weeks ago

    Seawater, probably.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 5 points 3 weeks ago

    Likely warm mineral water with a strong saline taste, a slight metallic bitterness, and possibly a sulfurous aftertaste. So nasty.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 3 points 3 weeks ago
    [โ€“] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    Vegemite. Or Marmite if you are weird.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 weeks ago

    probably poisonous, as there would be either compounds mixed into it.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 weeks ago

    Probubly similar to sewage

  • source
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 weeks ago
    [โ€“] 1 point 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Like nothing, as there was nothing to taste it yet.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [โ€“] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    A bit like pre-LUCA-um

  • source
  • [โ€“] 1 point 3 weeks ago
    [โ€“] -3 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Distilled sterile water. There was nothing living in it. There was no living things before to add any flavours.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [โ€“] 8 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    This implies that minerals and organic compounds have no taste, which is not the case.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [โ€“] 1 point 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    There were very few minerals, no complex organic compounds and very few simple organic compounds in the primordial soup. I severely doubt they'd give it any taste.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 child)

    I think there would be plenty of complex organic molecules. I mean you basically have a planet wide Urey-Miller experiment running for millennia with no life to eat any of the molecules generated, so they'd just... build up. I can't remember where I read it (so you'll just need to take my word for it), but some scientist posited that the pre-biotic Earth's oceans may have had a foot or so of oily sludge floating on them.

    But it's important to consider that, even though they aren't eaten, these generated compounds aren't just idly siting around on this pre-biotic Earth. Waves are whipping the ocean sludge into an emulsion on every shore line of the world, tide pools are filling, getting baked by the sun and then washed into the ocean again. Lightning strikes are electrolizing the sludge and lava from primordial volcanos is scorching it. Most importantly with no ozone layer the sun's UV is blasting the Earth, breaking apart molecules or crosslinking them together into new more complex molecules.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment