Would you give up your sense of taste if you never had to eat again.

[Abramul]

It should be noted that the choice would be to give up taste (and presumably the smell aspect thereof, as well), rather than giving up eating altogether. So, there would be nothing preventing you from sitting down to a meal with family or others when you desire the social aspect.

[Mithrandir8]

It should be noted that the choice would be to give up taste (and presumably the smell aspect thereof, as well), rather than giving up eating altogether. So, there would be nothing preventing you from sitting down to a meal with family or others when you desire the social aspect.

This is part of my point. If everyone could individually decide if they want to give up their sense of taste or not, then some people would choose not to give up the sense and would still need to eat. My entire family would choose to keep their sense of taste, so I probably would end up sitting down with them to enjoy the time spent with them. It would simply be nice to give up the need to eat when I am very busy with a project or am on a hike in the mountains and don't want to have to spend the time or effort of carring food with me and eating. I could be using that time for something else. Even if I would give up my sense of taste and the need to eat, I still could eat, it just wouldn't be necessary.

[ninja_lord666]

I would say yes, even though there are some foods that do taste good (I'm eating tostadoes right now--best chips ever! :D ). However, it would be better for the good of the world:

 

No overly fat, overly skinny, or unhealthy people: i\If we all became autotrophs (makes its own food like trees), then no one would eat too much, too little or anything unhealthy. We would all have perfect health as far as nutrition is concerned.

 

Money: No one would need to spend hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of dollars every year on buying food. So, we would all have a lot of extra cash to spend on the important things...like video games :P . Also, the third-world countries and the poor would have one less thing to worry about and can spend the little they have on clothes or shelter.

 

Farmland: Farmland would become useless. We wouldn't need to research better farming techiques. We could get rid of the stupid daylight saving time. And, all the farmers, cattle-raisers, and the like could get other jobs to help the comunity.

 

One more thing, If we didn't eat, we wouldn't produce solid or liquid waste. No more bathroom breaks. (We also couldn't sweat, but most people would think that's a GOOD thing...)

 

As far as the smell goes, if we were biologically unable to taste, our bodies would make our sense of smell NOT depend on a sense that doesn't exist, and thus, we could still smell.

 

For the family aspect...I generally don't care, lol, but I'm sure we would find some other way to socialize. Maybe just sit at tables and talk (food kind of gets in the way of talking doesn't it?). There are always movies, tv, video games, board games, etc.

 

(Wow, this was very anti-cynical of me...I guess the bad place in that religion we can't talk about must have frozen over...)

[ResidentWeevil2077]

If my body was like that of an autotroph, to be totally self-sufficient, to make its own nourishment without having to eat food, then taste or smell won't matter to me.

 

But to clarify something to ninja_lord666, we urinate because our cells produce wastes no matter what. We do No.2 because of the digested food, so that really wouldn't matter anyway. But we sweat not bacause we get rid of waste, we sweat when our bodies become hot, either by exercising, sitting out in the hot sun, or sitting in a hot tub. Not being able to sweat is an extremely BAD thing, and means there is something terribly wrong with you. People who don't like sweating are extremely insane, and should be damned to burn in Hell for eternity >:( .

 

I don't care if they think sweating's an inconvenience, they are ALL stupid friggin' a$$es. Not to sound flamy or trolly, but it's the plain, God-honest, nature-made-it-that-way, facts of life. ANYONE who thinks about disagreeing with me WILL feel my wrath. It's not because I want to start a flame war, but because that is a very, very skewed, insane, and narrow-minded way to think.

[ninja_lord666]

@ rob_b: I know that the body sweats to cool off. Just last month I did a biology project involving all 12 organ systems. While sweat does serve a purpose, the water and salt released are considered to be waste. The body wouldn't get rid of needed water even if it was hot. Do you ever see trees sweat?

Also, autotrophs do NOT urinate because they don't produce liquid waste. All excess water is given off as water vapor along with the other gasses.

One more thing, like someone said in an earlier post, our sense of smell acts as a basic chemical tester. If something smells toxic, it probably is. If we couldn't smell, we'd see that slimy goo and think it was bath soap or something like that.

Smell is also the way animals mark their territory. I would know, I have three cats. They are constantly rubbing themselves on corners, books, tables, anything. Not because they are itchy, but they are marking thier territory. It is also used by animals to comunicate. That is why you see dogs sniffing each others @$$es. Smell is, in the animal kingdom, one of, in not the, most important of the five senses.

 

Do not mess with a science geek :D

[Abramul]

...Do you ever see trees sweat?...

Go climb a conifer. Not sweat, but certainly excreted fluid.

 

Dunno if that stuff serves a purpose or not, though...

[ninja_lord666]

...Do you ever see trees sweat?...

Go climb a conifer. Not sweat, but certainly excreted fluid.

 

Dunno if that stuff serves a purpose or not, though...

 

If you're talking about sap, then that is not purposeful. Sap it the internal plant fliud (similar to our blood) that carries nutrients. The sap oozes out because of an external source, ex. weather, infection, insects, or us intending to harvest it to make maple syrup and latex or to eat in raw form (good for lost in the woods with no food situations).

[ResidentWeevil2077]

Ohff, he he... I forgot about Biology class ;D . What a putz I am...

 

But then again, you seem to be forgetting that WE'RE NOT trees. We move around, see, and trees, since they're firmly planted in the ground, don't need a reason to sweat. They get water from the ground, and if the ground is dry, because they can't move, will end up withering away. We however can move around and find sources of water.

 

The olfactory part was my bad. I plain forgot about its use in chemical sensory. But if you still say some people don't like to sweat, then I spit on you.

 

*commences to spit on ninja_lord666's brand new chucks*

[ninja_lord666]

Ohff, he he... I forgot about Biology class ;D . What a putz I am...

 

But then again, you seem to be forgetting that WE'RE NOT trees. We move around, see, and trees, since they're firmly planted in the ground, don't need a reason to sweat. They get water from the ground, and if the ground is dry, because they can't move, will end up withering away. We however can move around and find sources of water.

 

The olfactory part was my bad. I plain forgot about its use in chemical sensory. But if you still say some people don't like to sweat, then I spit on you.

 

*commences to spit on ninja_lord666's brand new chucks*

 

I never said I didn't like sweat, just that there are people that do. You can't deny that there are people who don't like sweat. Some even get plastic surgery that they are physicaly unable to sweat. i'm not saying it's right, just that it's true.

Also, if we didn't move, we would still sweat. When it's the middle of summer and you're just lying there in your hot house (if you have no air conditioning like me) you still sweat. Sweat cools us off. period. Not only if you move in excess.

You seem to be forgetting the cactus. It can live for months, even years, in the hot dry desert without any rain. Plants also get water from the air. Water vapor is condensed into water and transported throughout the body.

 

PS: On the hole if we were autotrophs thing, that was merely hypothetical. I know we aren't trees.

[Peregrine]

Ohff, he he... I forgot about Biology class ;D . What a putz I am...

 

But then again, you seem to be forgetting that WE'RE NOT trees. We move around, see, and trees, since they're firmly planted in the ground, don't need a reason to sweat. They get water from the ground, and if the ground is dry, because they can't move, will end up withering away. We however can move around and find sources of water.

 

The olfactory part was my bad. I plain forgot about its use in chemical sensory. But if you still say some people don't like to sweat, then I spit on you.

 

*commences to spit on ninja_lord666's brand new chucks*

 

 

Actually, we are trees. If you accept that one exists independent of time, the molecules that now make up your body will likely also be a tree in the future. So in a way, you ARE the tree. Therefore your entire argument is invalid.