"The Botany of Desire" is a very interesting PBS documentary -
The program shows how four familiar species (the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato) evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.
The tulip, by gratifying our desire for a certain kind of beauty, has gotten us to take it from its origins in Central Asia and disperse it around the world. Marijuana, by gratifying our desire to change consciousness, has gotten people to risk their lives, their freedom, in order to grow more of it and plant more of it. The potato, by gratifying our desire for control, control over nature so that we can feed ourselves has gotten itself out of South America and expanded its range far beyond where it was 500 years ago. And the apple, by gratifying our desire for sweetness begins in the forests of Kazakhstan and is now the universal fruit. These are great winners in the dance of domestication.Embedded above is an introductory preview; the entire program can be viewed online at PBS.
Via Kottke.
Pedantic point: those plants didn't evolve "to" do those things for us. It's just that sweetness, THC etc were desirable to people, and so we helped the plants survive and reproduce. It's like saying cows evolved to be tasty! Evolution doesn't have a goal, it's just an inevitable consequence of heritability and mutation. Incidentally, THC evolved "to" defend against insect herbivores.
ReplyDeleteIts also a book by Michael Pollan, Excellent Read.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Botany-Desire-Plants-Eye-View-World/dp/0375501290
"It's like saying cows evolved to be tasty! ""
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome LOL.
Why do people post ANON?