this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
1208 points (98.6% liked)

Science Memes

11189 readers
2414 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month 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?

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month 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.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month 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.