Trial & Error Of Human Life

I like to think about the broader spectrum of many subjects. It's always interesting to figure out the origin of certain things, whether they came about on purpose or by accident, and at what cost. By cost, you can argue financial or some other means of value...such as human life. That's right...some things we have, know and understand nowadays came as the result of using humans as test subjects. Obviously there are now laws that prevent this from being a current research method, at least when they're not in a completely controlled atmosphere. Not everything was regulated way back when, though. Even certain controlled experimentation was shady and controversial, but that's not what I'm referring to here. I'll give you a few examples that crossed my mind.

First, poisonous berries growing on various vegetation. Something that crossed my mind is how we came to realize they were poisonous. You have to figure that the earliest of our descendants were willing to give just about anything a try in order to maintain an adequate level of sustenance. In other words, they were looking for ways to survive, by any means necessary. These individuals saw something that was potentially edible, so they figured, "eh...what the hell, why not?" Except it likely sounded more like a series of grunts and clicks, because the English language likely hadn't caught on by then, contrary to whatever Hollywood may portray in certain movies. So they pluck a few berries, pop them in their mouths like skittles, then mysteriously...they get terminally ill and die. How many of them did this before the colony or group of people decided that maybe it wasn't a good idea to be eating these things? Perhaps after Prometheus devoured a handful and passed away only days later, it's possible they thought that Prometheus may have just been a weak link in the clan and that they wouldn't experience the same fate. So they went ahead, had some anyway and died faster than he did. I wonder how many of them died before they definitively decided that they were no good and made it clear to others not to eat them...unless they really really didn't like a certain someone...then they fed them a whole meal of them. It's only logical to assume that several of these curious and hungry souls had to die to figure this out, and to a certain extent, I am personally curious how many. Maybe that's morbid, but hey...you know now not to just eat random berries in the wild. Why? Because they did...and for that you should thank them.

I'm honestly curious if even though they are poisonous, that they are
delicious as well. Only then would I understand why they ate them.

How about shark attacks? If you really think about it, the saying goes, "there's a first time for everything," right? Well there had to be a first shark attack at some point in history. Previous to that one occurrence, I'm guessing people figured there was no harm in bobbing around in the water for whatever reason: cooling off, exercise, fishing, peeing...you get the drill. Then one day, Jimbo goes out into the water to relieve himself and either he came back to shore with two arms, a leg and a nub or he didn't come back at all. If he was alone, this didn't raise a red flag to anyone and it required witnesses during the next occasion for someone to stop aimlessly drifting out into the water. It's possible the first sighting of a shark fin was thought to be a harmless dolphin, and that's only if they knew at that point what dolphins were and that they were in fact harmless. It's entirely possible that they had never seen one from either creature and, once again, curiosity took over rather than fear. They wanted a closer look instead of avoiding an otherwise unknown potential risky situation. Another popular phrase comes to mind here: "Once bitten, twice shy." I highly suspect this was the event of origin for that one. It's interesting to think of how many buffoons suffered an awful fate before the rest of these people decided to be more aware of fins protruding from the water's surface. Clearly it hasn't eliminated these attacks from happening, but that's unrealistic to even consider. All I can say is I remain cautious and aware when I am out I the ocean. I ain't trying to be an hors d'oeuvre for Jaws, you know what I mean?

He clearly didn't hear the "duh-nuh...duh-nuh........duh-nuh duh-nuh"
background noise, otherwise he would have seen this coming.

Ever wonder how they figured out that you shouldn't drink bleach? They do have warnings on the labels so that you know not to ingest it. I highly doubt that they came up with this conclusion without someone first taking a sip and finding out how tragic it can be. Isn't that the main reason they have these warnings on labels in the first place? They wouldn't tell you not to drink it if someone hadn't already made that fatal mistake. The first person...what a jackass. It smells horrible (which is enough for me not to even debate it) and if that person saw what that chemical can do to everyday objects (discolor, disinfect, distort, disintegrate), what makes them think that those effects will not occur inside their body? I could delve further into the humors of warning labels, but that could be for another entry. I think the more interesting thing about these instances I'm mentioning today are that they can't possible be isolated. There is no way possible that only one person has eaten poisonous berries. As we all know, there have been tons of documented shark attacks. So to think that one person was the direct cause for a "Do Not Drink" warning on bleach is illogical. I'm more interested in how many of these morons decided to have a Clorox cocktail and died from it. I don't know that I see it as a total negative, though. They are weeding out some of the weaker elements of the gene pool, so it's not all bad.

Bleach has also been known to cause terrible dye-jobs.
With locks like that, I'd rather drink it, personally.

I'm sure I'll think of more that are worth mentioning, but those are just a few that immediately came to mind. Until then, I'll be headed to the beach, where I'll be drinking Clorox and poison berry smoothies as I ride the waves where some tiger sharks may roam. Sounds fun, right? I thought so too.

D.