all 20 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] 5 points 1 day ago

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

  • source
  • [โ€“] 2 points 1 day ago

    Probubly similar to sewage

  • source
  • [โ€“] 18 points 2 days 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 2 days ago

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

  • source
  • [โ€“] 5 points 1 day ago

    Seawater, probably.

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

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

    Vegemite. Or Marmite if you are weird.

  • source
  • [โ€“] 2 points 1 day ago
    [โ€“] 1 point 1 day ago

    A bit like pre-LUCA-um

  • source
  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

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

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 day ago
    [โ€“] -3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [โ€“] 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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

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

    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 1 child comment
  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    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