[FRIAM] A thread for why did we first eat or drink that?

[Eric Charles]

In my imagination...
Step 1: Some random ancient male, "Ow! This Horrible!"
Step 2: Later, that random dude and a bunch of other dudes, "Ogg, you try
this, so good, yummy yum!" 2 minutes later, the entire group as Ogg cries
in a corner, "Ahahahahahaha! We get Zogg next! Hey Zogg, you try this, so
good!"
Step 3: "What? Zogg no cry? Zogg is no cry man. He eat another, still no
cry? Zogg, Zogg, Zogg, Zogg!"
Step 4: All the other men secretly eat little bits and cry in the corner
until one day they triumphantly show the group how that they can eat it and
not cry too.
Step 5: Imitation continues, combined with human's amazing ability to seek
the familiar.

<echarles at american.edu>


On Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 2:32 PM uǝlƃ ☤>$ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure if this is in the same vein. But:
>
>
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-catnip-plant-repels-insects-mosquitoes-chemical-receptor
>
> On 12/2/21 11:13 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
> > Gil=
> >
> > I don't have a good answer to this one, but experience it myself all the
> time.
> >
> > SNL writers sure put a fine point on it though:
> >
> >
> https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/bad-decision-family/2868100
> >
> > In the spirit of thread-twining...   I wonder if this "instinct"
> (habit?) isn't rooted in some kind of group-survival by helping (some of)
> us escape the local minima of "one bad experience"... smearing the
> distinction (maybe?) amongst possible worlds?  A
> semantic/cognitive/perceptual mechanism for annealing in CS speak?
> >
> > Also, it might be noted that natural pesticides include things like
> garlic and capsacin, suggesting that we are drawn to them *because* they
> are even harsher on our possible parasites than they are on ourselves?
> >
> > Somewhere I once read something about the positive correlation between
> health-promoting phytonutrients and the commonly associated
> bitter/sour/astringent tastes they come with.   This source barely
> references it... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11101467/   and this one
> addresses the bitter/toxic correlation:
> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7878094/
> >
> > My own PseudoCalvinist upbringing instructed me "it has to taste bad to
> be good (for you)" contradicting (or explaining) Poppinses idea about "a
> spoonful of sugar".
> >
> > It is also the case that "adult tastes" are almost all "acquired".  Few
> of us really liked our first shot of tequila or even sip of beer or wine,
> and definitely not the first puff of tobacco (or any other herb) smoke...
> >
> > I think I'll go s(n)ort through the stuff in the back of my fridge now!
> >
> > and another one for the causality impaired:
> >
> >
> https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/do-you-know-what-i-hate/n9296
> >
> > - Steve
> >
> >
> > On 12/2/21 11:17 AM, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> >> While making lunch. I got curious about what might have gone through
> the first people to not just eat, but keep eating peppery things. I'm sort
> of picturing a conversation between to dudes where one decides "that thing
> that just set my mouth on fire? yeah! let me have more!".
> >>
> >> What on earth might have possessed humans to keep eating spicey foods?
> I also wonder the samething about coffee. A hard green fruit seed that you
> have to flambe to make edible or drinkable.
>
> --
> "Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie."
> ☤>$ uǝlƃ
>
>
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