4 ms·

I look forward to "How chickens and cannabis evolved to make humans their servants".

nine_k 8y ago
This is how being tasty and easy to catch can lead to enormous reproductive success, plentiful free food, and access to advanced medicines, also free! Cats, who chose a different route, get the reverse if that, being spayed as a norm, getting their nature's KPI much lower than chickens' or even cows'. Oh wait... Seriously, you can see it as an evolutionary trap of specialization, getting into a deep (local) maximum without a feasible way out, should circumstances change.
- netcan 8y ago
  Chickens are hard to catch. Source: Rocky
  - wild_preference 8y ago
    Their eggs aren't!
d--b 8y ago
There is a tv show they literally makes that point about cannabis. And apples.
- evgen 8y ago
  It is a series based on the book The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan.
braythwayt 8y ago
I’ve always made this joke about Tobacco. It’s a parasite that modifies our brain chemistry to make us physically dependent upon it. It feels a little more “HaHaOnlySerious” with Tobacco, because it is clearly harmful to its “host organism,” whereas cultivated livestock and Cannabis (or Coffee) are arguably good for humans.
- gowld 8y ago
  Tobacco isn't nearly so bad as smoking the tar that is put in tobacco for modern cigarettes.
  - braythwayt 8y ago
    Cigarettes are awful almost to the point of incomprehension. But tar is the byproduct of all smoked leaves, including cigars and marijuana. So you can certainly have a less toxic experience avoiding cigarettes, but smoking is still toxic.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
From what I remember (and I may be thinking of the wrong book) "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari goes into this theory in great detail. It argues the case that chickens are the most successful animals on the planet when it comes to reproducing and passing on their genes despite being very low on the food chain.

This is how being tasty and easy to catch can lead to enormous reproductive success, plentiful free food, and access to advanced medicines, also free! Cats, who chose a different route, get the reverse if that, being spayed as a norm, getting their nature's KPI much lower than chickens' or even cows'. Oh wait... Seriously, you can see it as an evolutionary trap of specialization, getting into a deep (local) maximum without a feasible way out, should circumstances change.

netcan 8y ago
Chickens are hard to catch. Source: Rocky
- wild_preference 8y ago
  Their eggs aren't!

d--b 8y ago

There is a tv show they literally makes that point about cannabis. And apples.

evgen 8y ago
It is a series based on the book The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan.

braythwayt 8y ago

I’ve always made this joke about Tobacco. It’s a parasite that modifies our brain chemistry to make us physically dependent upon it. It feels a little more “HaHaOnlySerious” with Tobacco, because it is clearly harmful to its “host organism,” whereas cultivated livestock and Cannabis (or Coffee) are arguably good for humans.

gowld 8y ago
Tobacco isn't nearly so bad as smoking the tar that is put in tobacco for modern cigarettes.
- braythwayt 8y ago
  Cigarettes are awful almost to the point of incomprehension. But tar is the byproduct of all smoked leaves, including cigars and marijuana. So you can certainly have a less toxic experience avoiding cigarettes, but smoking is still toxic.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

From what I remember (and I may be thinking of the wrong book) "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari goes into this theory in great detail. It argues the case that chickens are the most successful animals on the planet when it comes to reproducing and passing on their genes despite being very low on the food chain.