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Trip Asking for Prime Rib

Here's a another take/clarification on the coverage of the BBC story:http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...d-about-them-theyre-shockingly-sophisticated/
As far as I gather, plants experiencing pain would be counter-productive evolution-wise. Their capability to move away from pain is extremely limited, they have no central nervous system, and much of the time their propagation depends on another animal eating them/spreading their seed (dirty!)
But hey, it's an interesting topic, and we'll find out more I'm sure.
 
If I don't eat this food it will suffer and die!

:: applies theory to chocolate ::

Personally I exclusively eat plants as a way to save the world - they're all secretly Triffids, you know. I'm doing you all a favour :D

One day I am so going to laugh my ass of if we find out that plants are sentient beings. What would Vegans do then? Move to Vega?

If we found out plants were sentient and I was a vegan I would just eat only the animals that I truly hated, like sharks. I hate those mother fuckers, also crocodiles, and if I had to make an ethical choice on a level playing field where all were equal I would just go with my pet hatreds. Sharks or carrots, the choice would be easy if carrots were all sentient and orange and growing without hurting anyone. Why not eat the eaters? Instead of the innocent?
 
Here's a another take/clarification on the coverage of the BBC story:http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...d-about-them-theyre-shockingly-sophisticated/
As far as I gather, plants experiencing pain would be counter-productive evolution-wise. Their capability to move away from pain is extremely limited, they have no central nervous system, and much of the time their propagation depends on another animal eating them/spreading their seed (dirty!)
But hey, it's an interesting topic, and we'll find out more I'm sure.

That's what I always wonder about. Do plants INTEND to get their seeds spread by the help of other organisms or is that accidental?

Intention would require an evolutionary mechanism that isn't agreed upon in the scientific community: the ability of an organism to actively mutate its DNA before passing it to the next generation. Like “oh my gosh, this heat is killing me, my children need less fur.“ and - tada - flipped is one of the switches in the code.
 
It seems to go back to the idea that there is a subtle difference between replicated foods and 'real' food.

Well, Picard does say in Sins of the Father that replicated Caviar isn't as good as the real thing, and Paris complains in Caretaker that the replicators aboard Voyager can't get Tomato Soup right.
 
I always figured that the big difference was that replicated food contains none of the small flourishes, differences and imperfections that real food might contain.
 
Palates are adaptive, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't notice or care. Plus you could program it pretty specifically if you had a replicator fitted out for that.

Chocolate, dark.

Specify percentage.

83.7%

Specify conching level.

etc..

You would have to know just as much about the food you wanted and how it actually is prepared in real life to get it as specific as you wanted. You could add the flourishes by requesting some randomness too, let's say each piece in the block of chocolate varied by up to 8% of your specifications. I am sure there are many replicator foodies who love the numbers crunching and share recipes.

You can make home made ketchup which is delicious and still have people prefer store bought, sugar and salt laden ketchup. People will be used to getting exactly what they want from the replicator and resist the flourishes and differences. I think a lot of the bitching about Neelix's cooking was that people had lost control, they had to take the stew in front of them and not adjust every aspect of it to their own tastes.
 
Palates are adaptive, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't notice or care. Plus you could program it pretty specifically if you had a replicator fitted out for that.

Chocolate, dark.

Specify percentage.

83.7%

Specify conching level.

etc..

You would have to know just as much about the food you wanted and how it actually is prepared in real life to get it as specific as you wanted. You could add the flourishes by requesting some randomness too, let's say each piece in the block of chocolate varied by up to 8% of your specifications. I am sure there are many replicator foodies who love the numbers crunching and share recipes.

You can make home made ketchup which is delicious and still have people prefer store bought, sugar and salt laden ketchup. People will be used to getting exactly what they want from the replicator and resist the flourishes and differences. I think a lot of the bitching about Neelix's cooking was that people had lost control, they had to take the stew in front of them and not adjust every aspect of it to their own tastes.
I assumed Neelix was a gourmet chef for someone with a Talaxian tongue. If their taste reception is broader than humans, and even registers flavors we do at different levels it could be a right pain for him to work out what humans like. To the Talaxian tongue leola root may really be their equivalent of chocolate and truffles.
 
The leola root bitching was stupid. Why did he put leola root in everything? Because that is what they had. Sure everyone would rather have had potatoes but they didn't have potatoes. They complained about his use of the raw materials available, which was his job! I really do think they are all spoiled and in shock that day after day they can't control what they eat to the degree replicators allow.
 
The leola root bitching was stupid. Why did he put leola root in everything? Because that is what they had. Sure everyone would rather have had potatoes but they didn't have potatoes. They complained about his use of the raw materials available, which was his job! I really do think they are all spoiled and in shock that day after day they can't control what they eat to the degree replicators allow.
It's a good in-universe explanation.
 
I always figured that the big difference was that replicated food contains none of the small flourishes, differences and imperfections that real food might contain.
My take is that regardless if you request pork or chicken or beef, what the replicator delivers is all basically the same thing, a piece of textured protein with a favoring added. It isn't a piece of animal tissue, it's a generic facsimile.

If you did know ahead of time what you were eating, you might not be able to tell just by eating it.

:)
 
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