OmniEatability

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:21 am

The Omnicommunity and an episode of Voyager made me realize that for the amount of chemicals, alergies, reactants, and what not that can effect humans and for that matter other races eatting random foods sure doesn't seem to be a problem.

ENT offered the only plausable explaination of this when Archer's dog pissed on a tree they said they had sent the aliens a copy of the dog's genome, but still.. kind of far fetched.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:13 pm

Maybe they have a 'Universal Digestive System'?
Again, this is something that doesn't make that much sense when closely examined.

Blackstar the Chakat · Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:19 pm

I'm sure it's checked by someone off-screen somehow. Or huminoids have a similar physiology, and may be able to eat food from other planets with huminoid life. Although I'm sure many careless ensigns have gotten sick or died from not checking their food first. Many alians look like humans with funny faces, or sometimes exacty like humans. This could mean that they have similar digestive systems.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:22 pm

Well, it would make sense that it was checked off-screen. Or maybe with a tri-corder, somehow.
As for diets being similar, that is very unlikely. Even on Earth today, each species has it's own dietry requirements. Given the stuff we've seen Klingons eat, I'd say a lot of species are quite different when it comes to food.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:57 pm

Well, with that whole 'progenitors seeding the cosmos' business, presumably many species are based on the same sort of DNA, which will call for the same set of amino acids. Once you're past that, it's just a matter of which compounds you have or have not developed organs to process.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:20 pm

Oh, right. I forgot about that stupidity.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:21 pm

Well that kind of takes natural selection out of the equation doesn't it?
There's a chemical that tastes bitter to 7/10 people in the US. Its found in many posions but the other 3/10 can't taste it due to natural selection. Believe me, it tastes horrible.

Post by **Mikey** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:57 pm

We could assume that there are chemical "sniffers" that are always active, but it's still a stretch. In point of fact, outside the universe, it would just be a technical point that bogged down stories.

I don't like being made to explain away something from the show, but this particular one I don't mind ignoring.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:14 pm

Mikey wrote:We could assume that there are chemical "sniffers" that are always active, but it's still a stretch. In point of fact, outside the universe, it would just be a technical point that bogged down stories.

I don't like being made to explain away something from the show, but this particular one I don't mind ignoring.

This is the answer, in the end. The most attention it's really worth paying to this is 'oh they have funny foods' and maybe the occasional 'species x finds food y highly poisonous'.

Flavor text, you might say.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:06 pm

Good point.
Personaly, I just like to think they check their tricorders before eating anything.

Post by **Mikey** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:09 pm

I vote for the chem-sniffers.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:10 pm

Actually the show that inspired me to make this thread had Seven eatting some kind of food some native girl gave her without scanning or hell even sniffing it first.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:12 pm

Well you know what Seven would say to that - "I am Borg". And we all know the vast intelligence that implies.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:13 pm

Yeah but it was a planet covered by an energy shield that no one has set foot on in centuries.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:31 pm

Pfft. You think a little thing like common sense will deter them?