this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024

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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Would aliens actually be weirded out by this quality of humans?

I feel like any sufficiently intelligent species living on a planet will have some degree of biodiversity on said planet. And the chances of something being made to be a poison/deterrent for creatures other than the intelligent species is probably a large one, because it's pretty hard for plants and animals to make a poison/deterrent that kills everything without also killing itself. So if there is a gap for itself, there is a gap for other life to coexist with the toxin. And that's before accounting for the fact that something can be safe at low levels, provide benefits/stimulation/good feels at low levels, and toxic at high levels.

So I'd think it would be pretty natural for intelligent life to consume things that are harmful to huge swaths of other creatures.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Works best with the Earth-is-a-deathworld trope

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

If we were the aliens and came across two worlds inhabited by intelligent life I would probably be more weirded out by the one where nobody uses any mind altering substance like caffeine that are poisonous to other animals.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month 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] 8 points 1 month 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.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (15 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (3 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.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 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

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

What does anyone have against "u", fucking fuck?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They just want to propagate. The best chance a plant has to do that is by being tasty or useful to humans so we cultivate them.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sometimes, when a fruit or seed isn't toxic enough for our taste, we make it liquid then make it ferment or age until some of its sugar turns into the deliciously neurotoxic ethanol.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Obligatory symbiosis is a sexy, sexy vehicle for propagation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Poppies kill things?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Heroin, opium and morphine are derived from poppies. Too much of any narcotic and you die

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Yeah but we need to process the shit out of it. Is anything really going to die from eating some raw poppy seeds?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It doesn't really need to be processed much. Heated plant parts for tea and the sap is ready to smoke after drying. Both of these processes do count as processing but I would not say it counts as "process[ing] the shit out of it. "

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

To overdose to death on it you need to also purify and concentrate it. Animals aren't even heating and smoking it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

You don't need to purify to drink it just extract it. It's hard to smoke enough opium to OD (which I guess counts as concentration through evaporation but isn't purified to seperate alkoloids) to death without other drugs but it is pretty easy to over do it with just tea. Like a previous poster said tea extractions will have wildly varying potencies so they can kill even those with tolerance.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

People die almost every year overdosing on tea made from poppy seeds.

The potency of the seeds vary so much that you can buy two jars and drinking a tea made from one will give you a decent buzz and the other will kill you if you drink half.

If an animal were to eat a seed pod, it could definitely die.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

statistically no, but its possible to get a random group of poppyseeds that are extra potent. its why for example, South Korea bans it (as they dont even want the chance for them to get collected)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So how do we do poppy seed bagels?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The poppy seeds don't contain the opiate, the surrounding latex contains it (visual: pomegranate seeds, and the inedible flesh you free it from).

Some of that opiate might get on the seeds, but its mixed into such quantities with other poppy seeds that the potency level is diluted to virtually nothing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And yet, can still fuck the unlucky in a drug test.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Wow. I guess I need to eat more bagels

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Well, we are pretty big for insects

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Caffeine is poisonous to us too, so I think it's more accurate to say that humans enjoy the side effects of that particular neurotoxin. It's generally not possible for someone healthy to drink enough coffee to die, but they sell pure caffeine (for research) and even seemingly small amounts of that will kill a person.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

You can buy 200mg pure anhydrous caffeine pills at Walmart for like $5. It's abundant and as safe as coffee if you don't go nuts. The max daily recommended dose is 400mg, anything past that could cause harm

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[–] [email protected] 126 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Funnily enough we try to cultivate everything we like, so in a roundabout way they were successful.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think the book Sapiens makes the point that wheat has trained us into cultivating it for selfish needs.

(Except that it's wheat, and that we annihilated 99% of its brethren to pick out the one that we liked so we could effectively clone it. But yes, we are the slaves...)

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I think that’s basically what The Botany of Desire is about, right?

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Tbf, this has proven to be extremely effective: Just think of how many tobacco or chili plants are grown today! Domestication really is a two-way-street

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Basically humans will have sex with you, eat you, or make you a pet.

Sometimes more than one.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

Don't forget we wear them also...

[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nicotine, THC, and cocaine are also insecticides. And psilocybin might be an insect repellent.

Thanks poison!

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Drugs - natures mosquito repellant

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Mosquitoes are such squares!

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