I've wondered this too. It seems like there is a solid argument that they could act as a harmful invasive species and damage or destroy ecosystems which they are introduced to. There is precedent for this in hippos which were introduced to South America.
However, these rare and unique megafauna are so valuable (imo), that the potential damage they could cause ecosystems we introduce them to may be outweighed by their increased resilience. The death of all wild elephant populations would be a massive blow to biology, animal psychology, and natural beauty; I wonder if we should think more about prioritizing their survival over other ecological considerations.
I'm absolutely not an expert in this area at all, just thoughts of a layman.
There is reason to consider this a possibility, since many molecules may be potentially harmful when inhaled as vapor, with unknown health effects (ie vitamin E acetate), but under combustion would deteriorate mostly or entirely into the carbon forms that have well understood effect on health -- as a previous commenter mentioned, 10yr lifespan reduction from long term continuous cigarette use.
There is just not longitudinal data available for vaporizing plants or synthetic nicotine/thc concentrates. It could be an even higher lifespan reduction than smoking!
I think you have a slight misunderstanding about the great filter.
If we found only microorganisms on the other plant that should indicate that the filter is behind us, life having died out on that planet before even reaching large scale organisms let alone technology.
If we find ruins of civilization and technology on the planet at either about the same stage as us or more advanced, then we can assume that the filter is ahead of us.
From one media manipulator to another: when you pay the premium price for a long-standing hacker news account, it's usually more convincing to let people find the comment history for themselves.
Probably not the same thing that guy was walking about, but this is a cool project going on at University of Washington - it's made for biological science workflows but it's really quite flexible.
However, these rare and unique megafauna are so valuable (imo), that the potential damage they could cause ecosystems we introduce them to may be outweighed by their increased resilience. The death of all wild elephant populations would be a massive blow to biology, animal psychology, and natural beauty; I wonder if we should think more about prioritizing their survival over other ecological considerations.
I'm absolutely not an expert in this area at all, just thoughts of a layman.