Nicotine, THC, and cocaine are also insecticides. And psilocybin might be an insect repellent.
Thanks poison!
Capsaicin is a fungicide, which is extremely useful in the environments where spicy peppers grow.
The best bit about the mint and chocolate thing is that chocolate is also poison, so we spice up our poison with more poison.
All valid Points. But also, humans: i will care for this plant and create huge fields where you can live prosper and in peace. We kill everything who comes near you and try to harm you. And we will ensure you will live forever. You dont need birds who shit your seeds out.
Those plants domesticared us!
Also humans: we will breed you until your fruit no longer bears seed, because we decide when and how you reproduce
Botany of desire
Basically humans will have sex with you, eat you, or make you a pet.
Sometimes more than one.
Don’t forget we wear them also…
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
Are we farming the plants or are the plants farming us.
I do would like to be an alien’s pet.
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.
Works best with the Earth-is-a-deathworld trope
Level 12 Deathworld.
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.
Don’t forget…
Yeast: oh man I love sugars so much, I just wish they didn’t make me shit so bad.
Humans: dude this stuff is fucking awesome!
Yeast in sugar is going: I’ll just convert this to poison (ethanol) to keep everything away, then whenever I’m hungry I’ll break that poison into acid
Humans: hold my… Wait a minute let’s make beer!
Parrots: tasty tasty poison
Fruit flies: bonanza!
And if my yeasty poison goes bad, I’ll just pour it over some poisonous leaves, I love salad.
Don’t forget to season it with minerals you chipped off a rock in a dried out lake bed.
TBF, life’s objective is to reproduce and keep its genetic materials continuing on. Even if humans propagate and consume said plant because they find it desirable, that is still a success for the plant. So even if it has toxic caffeine or fiery capsaicin to deter some pests and humans find it enjoyable, the plant wins.
Especially since many of the plants die after 1 year anyway so it’s not even like we shorten their lives anyway.
Rhubarb: most of me is poison. The rest of me is kind of bitter.
Humans: Hold my pie crust.
Rhubarb crumble is legitimately delicious though.
Don’t get me wrong, I love rhubarb. But whoever first figured out it was edible must have been desperate.
Strawberry rhubarb :)
People who have accidentally eaten death cap mushrooms (amanita phalloides for the autists out there) say that it’s fucking delicious (before their liver shuts down). Rabbits can eat them without problems. So if we use rabbit genes, we can crispr cas 9 our way to a good meal.
Let’s gooo
Poppies kill things?
Heroin, opium and morphine are derived from poppies. Too much of any narcotic and you die
Yeah but we need to process the shit out of it. Is anything really going to die from eating some raw poppy seeds?
Well, we are pretty big for insects
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)
So how do we do poppy seed bagels?
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.
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. "
To overdose to death on it you need to also purify and concentrate it. Animals aren’t even heating and smoking it.
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.
Is they plant that’s made into cocaine in this same category?
Listing the manufacturing steps needed to get cocaine from plant into a wall street trader nose is mind blowing
Step Chemicals Used Harvesting Coca Leaves N/A Soaking in Solvents Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel Fuel, Water Alkaline Treatment Sodium Carbonate, Lime First Filtration N/A Acidification (Coca Paste) Sulfuric Acid Evaporation N/A Further Alkaline Treatment Ammonia, Sodium Bicarbonate Solvent Extraction Ether, Acetone, Kerosene Precipitation Hydrochloric Acid Oxidation (Purification) Potassium Permanganate Conversion to Cocaine HCl Hydrochloric Acid Drying N/A Cutting/Adulteration Baking Soda, Sugars, Levamisole, etc. And that doesn’t say how many coca leaves it takes. Which is a whole shitload.
I once had coca leaf tea (mate de coca). Obviously a fraction of the strength of cocaine. I did not care for the taste, sort of like damp straw, but the effect was so much better than caffeine. Total alertness without a jittery feeling and it wears off after 3 or 4 hours.
Honestly, if they could do something about the taste, I’d find ways to import it.
I have either seen the documentary that came from before or something extremely similar.
Sooo actually why land mammals can’t filter out salt from seawater?
Actually if you are on a raft with a limited amount of fresh water, you can mix in some sea water to stretch it out a bit. I think if you use a third seawater its ok, but don’t quote me on that.
Erm, if im on a raft im gonna be quoting you so you better be right.
PSA: if you’re on a remote island or dysfunctional yet floating ship do not abandon it unless truly necessary - raft will be always more dangerous
What does anyone have against “u”, fucking fuck?
Americans have been trying to eliminate the letter “u” for centuries.
No u
NO V
Aliens would extract our bile and earwax.
