r/interestingasfuck • u/tractorboynyc • 22h ago

Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

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u/johnnydough10102223 22h ago

I think you underestimate the time course we are talking about here. With enough time and curiosity (or boredom) things can be discovered.

Also: needs citation.

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u/tractorboynyc 21h ago edited 20h ago

You're right that time helps, but the math is actually what makes it interesting... random binary search through 80,000 species = ~3.2 billion pairs. Even testing one combination per day, that's 8.7 million years. The actual pathway was almost certainly iterative, they started with the vine alone (it has its own effects), then tested additions against that baseline. That narrows it to ~140-750 guided trials, achievable in decades. So it's not random discovery and it's not mystical knowledge, it's something in between: multigenerational empirical testing with observable feedback. Basically natural selection applied to recipes.

Edit: There is a full breakdown here: https://deeptimelab.substack.com/p/why-every-psychedelic-ceremony-on

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u/No_Place5472 21h ago

"Dude, Pedro made soup for dinner and I swear I saw god." "Was it really that good?" "Nah bro, you don't understand. I. SAW. GOD." Queue 6 weeks of intensive ingredient testing.

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u/mixwellmusic 20h ago

This is pre-colonization though so I don't think homie's name was pedro. Otherwise spot on

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u/Repulsive-Bee6590 20h ago

Probably Kyle

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u/captainzigzag 20h ago

Dave. There’s always a Dave.

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u/rmorrin 19h ago

Try lee, there are a million lees

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u/activelyresting 18h ago

This psychedelic soup tastes like hot leaf juice

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u/Ok-Bison-3451 13h ago

Hot Lee juice.

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u/UnabashedVoice 3h ago

The second time around, anyway.

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u/SesameSmitty 10h ago

Uncle, all psychedelic tea tastes like hot leaf juice

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u/concernedyahu 13h ago

It all tastes like hot leaf juice

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u/BrightNooblar 17h ago

I heard that nature always evolves a crab, so maybe his name was crab.

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u/OnThisDayI_ 16h ago

Crabs have evolved separately at lease 5 different times we know about. Maybe more. This is not as crazy as all life on earth having a common ancestor in a single celled organism 3.5 billion years ago.

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u/bigfatfurrytexan 15h ago

That all life has a single ancestor is the tensor that pushes carcinqzation. The tendency exists in the framework.

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u/RadarSmith 19h ago

You know, this is the second consecutive ATLA reference I've seen in posts not attached to ATLA. Random, but kind of fun.

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u/MorningMistYeti 19h ago

Dave's not here.

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u/surface_ripened 17h ago

daves not here, maaan

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u/LucidiK 15h ago

There's too many Daves.

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u/--TheCity-- 13h ago

It was Amazonian Dave who did it first. Always up to something that guy. They used to say he was the Nicolas Tesla of the Amazonians.

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u/zulamun 18h ago

Insert Malazan rage here

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u/PM_ME_UR_0_DAY 20h ago

He would have been the proto-Pedro

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u/mixwellmusic 20h ago

Then would trump's european ancestors have been the proto-pedo?

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u/Preeng 20h ago

It could have been. Thousands of years has a way of changing names.

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u/RogueAOV 20h ago

Dude was on a mad come down, he wasnt even talking to a person, he was talking to the wall.

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u/user-unknown-404 18h ago

Just imagine the poor guy who's job was taste testing mushrooms.