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There tiny. If you actually look at an electrical outlet they have a fairly large gap to prevent shorting out and potentialy starting a fire.

PS: Science fiction seems to love the trope where tiny change destroys civilization but life needs far more than just an energy source.




Plant leaves are also quite large. If we could hypothetically leave the earth unsupervised for millions of years with the electrical outlets still working, we'd probably return to find lots of macroscopic electric life.


Considering the general lack of a near by water source probably not. Now high tension powerlines could be an option as there out doors and pump out a lot of energy which can be collected on both the small and large scales.

Don't forget it's been a billion years and plant's still don't use green light. For plankton it was reasonable as green does not penetrate as far but on land it's a huge waste.


Interesting point, but certainly there must be a reason why they can't use green light other than just "evolution is slow".




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