> Doing all the work. Microbes get no respect.

I think you're unfairly dismissing the massive amount of nanotech R&D and energy it takes to develop and operate the bazillion-unit cooperative mobile megafortress those bacteria are happily renting.

The real question is did they build it using agile or waterfall?

It took a billion years and ... mostly works.

I'd guess waterfall then.

test driven development!

Obviously, it was good ol' trial-and-error. Or rather, trial-and-the-least-error.

With all tech impressive tech, do the spiders feel it's beneath them to do those conversions themselves?

> Doing all the work. Microbes get no respect.

Maybe not in the mainstream?! But for many years people have had jobs specifically trying to get microbes to do useful work for us. [0]

Look up key terms like "directed evolution" in microbial research - which to me sounds like a fancy phrase for "breeding". But when breeding cycles can be measured in minutes across millions of units for something so small we can't see it... it kind of is a different thing so I guess it's fair to differentiate it.

[0] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2403585121

> But for many years people have had jobs specifically trying to get microbes to do useful work for us.

Well, you know, there's brewing and bread. I like beer. I like sauerkraut. I like bread.

Insulin is handy. So is human growth hormone.

I would guess that they've evolved for the conditions around the seafloor, so rotting trash piles or cow stomachs might be a stretch (though cows might welcome some extra sugars, unlike garbage - though I am sure some other microbes could step in there).

They are in cows and people and landfill as you'd expect.

Why would they not be?

If you want to increase their number you need to give them a better environment.