this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

It is kinda weird that humans are so resilient to so many things though. It's part of being scavenging omnivores, but alients with a more specialized diet might be weirded out.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Dogs can eat rotting meat and lick unwashed balls and ass but die from fucking grapes. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Humans can fuck grapes with impunity

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I.... I don't think I can.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 hours ago

Seems like a skill issue to me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

C'mon David. They want you to. Do it for them, buddy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I know it's just a typo, but the image "alients" conjured in my head is pretty funny. I have less than zero artistic talent or I'd share it with you all. Hopefully the mental image is enough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Aliens tree people is an interesting picture indeed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Potentially. But think of it this way, there are somewhere around 400,000 plant species out there.

https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/many-plants-world-scientists-may-now-answer/

Based on this list, something on the order of like 99.5% of plants are either not safe, or not useful/beneficial. If other species on our planet share a similar rate without complete overlap, then it's practically a guarantee that there will be thousands of plants that are safe and useful for us but not for other species. That doesn't feel particularly strange or unlikely. So even with a specialized diet, I don't think the numbers would be much different.

It also could be the case that being scavenging omnivores is a strong precursor to becoming intelligent. If your species is on the rise in terms of intelligence, you're probably using that to expand your food sources wide and far.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's based on species though, so it would overrepresent unlikely encounters. I can go eat pine bark or grass on any continent and probably be A-OK.

I do wonder how that data compares with other mammals though. Is it just average, or is it significantly higher?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That’s based on species though, so it would overrepresent unlikely encounters.

That is fair, but also consider that an intelligent species isn't going to be limited by chance encounters. I regularly eat bananas, but I don't live in India. I regularly eat pineapples, but I don't live in Costa Rica. Very little of my diet is comprised of food that is native to my area. As an intelligent species, we farm food en masse, ship it around the world, and plant things outside of their natural habitat.

I do wonder how that data compares with other mammals though. Is it just average, or is it significantly higher?

Purely speculating, I'd wager slightly above average as a result of the thing I said about omnivores being a precursor to becoming intelligent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

an intelligent species isn't going to be limited by chance encounters.

That's actually a fantastic point, we change our environment to be more suitable to ourselves, including cultivating unique yet safe species. I've never heard of a poison dart frog farm, nor a field of death caps.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

For mammals we are, sure, but there's loads of things that'd kill humans that other animals chow down on perfectly happily, especially when it comes to microorganisms, mushrooms and the rotting things they're often found in/around

I don't think scavenging is right also given that humans used to mainly pick fresh fruits and persistence hunt, both of which are very fresh food which is not overlooked or left by others... Given the fact we picked fresh fruits and hunted for fresh meat, being resistant to berry and fruit based poisons was more important than microorganism based ones, so it makes a lot of sense that so many of the non-intoxicating poisons we like are from fruits and berries

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

Scavenging carcasses and chasing predators away from a kill is definitely a behavior we had in the past. Particularly during droughts and famines, scavenging would be an important food source on the Saharan scrubland. IIRC, this would've been before persistence hunting was a thing, back in the H.erectus days, maybe even as far back as some Australopiths.