eli5: Why do some tiny animals contain enough venom to kill thousands of humans, isn’t that just overkill?
In: 356
First of all, I know that’s you Karl.
Second, I had some trouble articulating my thoughts here, so once it was written I asked ChatGPT to polish it for me. I don”t know if that’s against the rules? I looked but couldn’t find it mentioned. These are my thoughts, I just asked it to help me polish and clarify it.
Anyway…
In addition to what others have said, one thing I always try to remember is that nature is not fine-tuned and optimized like a video game. Evolution, often referred to as ‘natural selection,’ can be misleading in that sense. In reality, it’s kind of the opposite of what it sounds like – evolution is the process of elimination where nature selects the options that do NOT survive, and what remains is the result of THAT process.
When considering why some creatures possess an apparently excessive amount of venom, it’s not because they were deliberately chosen for their high venom levels. Rather, these creatures were not selected to die off due to their lack of defensive mechanisms. They possess enough venom to endure the rigorous culling process of evolution. Whether their venom levels are precisely sufficient, twice as much as required, or even enormously excessive, is not a factor considered by evolution.
Many natural systems may seem poorly designed due to this process. A common question that arises is why we are capable of experiencing such intense pain, where pain itself becomes a problem instead of just a warning. The answer remains the same – nature did not select an option for a positive outcome; it merely selected away from negative consequences.
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