3 ms·

Interesting. My first thought was, "well, they've certainly helped create hundreds if not thousands of startups."

astrodust 10y ago
It certainly created the very first start-up: The idea of growing crops. To a hunter-gatherer the very idea seemed stupid, so much time spent planting and tilling when you could go out and beat something with a club and have dinner in minutes. You can't really forage for alcohol. You have to farm it. Then the hunter-gatherers were probably interested in trading for alcohol and the economy was born.
- andrepd 10y ago
  Those are some really wild unsubstantiated guesses :^)
  - aaron695 10y ago
    But like Jared Diamond it is entertaining.
  - RangerScience 10y ago
    Sounds like a good start to a http://bahfest.com/ http://bahfest.com/ submission!
- luhn 10y ago
  Fallen fruit can ferment and apparently it's not uncommon for wild animals to get drunk from it. So you can forage for alcohol ;) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-alcoholics-of-the-animal-world-81007700/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-alcoholics-...
  - astrodust 10y ago
    There was a cherry tree in the backyard of a house I used to live in and every year the fruit would get funky and ferment. Birds and squirrels would make a habit of eating it and the backyard would be filled birds all flopping around and squirrels trying but mostly failing to find their way up trees. They knew what they were getting into, and they indulged. For about one week a year it was like a frat house out there. I can imagine people discovered the principle there, but brewing on a more industrial scale is necessary to provide a steady supply. Just about anything can be fermented, but that proecess takes time to do properly. It's a form of farming. So yeah, you can forage for it, but you'll get so little it's barely worth the trouble.
- darpa_escapee 10y ago
  Pretty sure agriculture developed for many reasons, including that this was far from true: > you could go out and beat something with a club and have dinner in minutes

It certainly created the very first start-up: The idea of growing crops. To a hunter-gatherer the very idea seemed stupid, so much time spent planting and tilling when you could go out and beat something with a club and have dinner in minutes. You can't really forage for alcohol. You have to farm it. Then the hunter-gatherers were probably interested in trading for alcohol and the economy was born.

andrepd 10y ago
Those are some really wild unsubstantiated guesses :^)
- aaron695 10y ago
  But like Jared Diamond it is entertaining.
- RangerScience 10y ago
  Sounds like a good start to a http://bahfest.com/ http://bahfest.com/ submission!
luhn 10y ago
Fallen fruit can ferment and apparently it's not uncommon for wild animals to get drunk from it. So you can forage for alcohol ;) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-alcoholics-of-the-animal-world-81007700/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-alcoholics-...
- astrodust 10y ago
  There was a cherry tree in the backyard of a house I used to live in and every year the fruit would get funky and ferment. Birds and squirrels would make a habit of eating it and the backyard would be filled birds all flopping around and squirrels trying but mostly failing to find their way up trees. They knew what they were getting into, and they indulged. For about one week a year it was like a frat house out there. I can imagine people discovered the principle there, but brewing on a more industrial scale is necessary to provide a steady supply. Just about anything can be fermented, but that proecess takes time to do properly. It's a form of farming. So yeah, you can forage for it, but you'll get so little it's barely worth the trouble.
darpa_escapee 10y ago
Pretty sure agriculture developed for many reasons, including that this was far from true: > you could go out and beat something with a club and have dinner in minutes