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I'm going to guess that human tolerance of alcohol has some evolutionary advantage. In addition to being a social lubricant, which seems to be critical to the s

I'm going to guess that human tolerance of alcohol has some evolutionary advantage. In addition to being a social lubricant, which seems to be critical to the species, I can imagine it's previous value was that it let us eat not-so-fresh fruit that the other beasties couldn't.

C1sc0cat 7y ago
And also helped reduce contamination in water which allows for larger communities to form
spats1990 7y ago
Aboriginal Australians did fine despite not really having it, for ~40,000 years or more.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  If stalling at the late stone age level and then being basically obliterated by colonisation is doing fine. Not quite sure I buy that
  - spats1990 7y ago
    Parent comment was about biology and evolution, not... whatever it is that this reply is about.
jazzyjackson 7y ago
Are we more tolerant of alcohol than other animals? It is a poison to us after all. There's lots of funny stories of birds eating fermented berries and acting tipsy.
- TomMckenny 7y ago
  What I'm wondering is whether our attitude toward alcohol poisoning is like that toward "hot" peppers and herbs. I understand that those last two repel broad groups of animals. So perhaps being tipsy is something other animals despise while we tolerate and even welcome it. _if_ that is the case then it opens up carbohydrates to us that other animals pass up. Maybe it's even testable in a lab.
LatteLazy 7y ago
I thought it was because beer was generally sterile but water (in any permanent human settlement) rapidly became infected with all sorts of deadly diseases? So if you drank (admittedly weaker, 1-2%) beer all the time you had a much better chance of surviving because you wouldn't die of disease. China and East Asia missed this since they got into (boiled) tea instead.
sethammons 7y ago
Eating firmented foods or near rotten fruit is definitely an evolutionary advantage. I have some birds that get apparently drunk off my end of season berries in my garden

C1sc0cat 7y ago

And also helped reduce contamination in water which allows for larger communities to form

spats1990 7y ago

Aboriginal Australians did fine despite not really having it, for ~40,000 years or more.

C1sc0cat 7y ago
If stalling at the late stone age level and then being basically obliterated by colonisation is doing fine. Not quite sure I buy that
- spats1990 7y ago
  Parent comment was about biology and evolution, not... whatever it is that this reply is about.

jazzyjackson 7y ago

Are we more tolerant of alcohol than other animals? It is a poison to us after all. There's lots of funny stories of birds eating fermented berries and acting tipsy.

TomMckenny 7y ago
What I'm wondering is whether our attitude toward alcohol poisoning is like that toward "hot" peppers and herbs. I understand that those last two repel broad groups of animals. So perhaps being tipsy is something other animals despise while we tolerate and even welcome it. _if_ that is the case then it opens up carbohydrates to us that other animals pass up. Maybe it's even testable in a lab.

LatteLazy 7y ago

I thought it was because beer was generally sterile but water (in any permanent human settlement) rapidly became infected with all sorts of deadly diseases? So if you drank (admittedly weaker, 1-2%) beer all the time you had a much better chance of surviving because you wouldn't die of disease. China and East Asia missed this since they got into (boiled) tea instead.

sethammons 7y ago

Eating firmented foods or near rotten fruit is definitely an evolutionary advantage. I have some birds that get apparently drunk off my end of season berries in my garden