Post by anthony on Aug 13, 2018 21:38:51 GMT
I wrote this for my own amusement, more than anything, but I figured I'd share...
2018-08-13 Corn Stalks
Being a "farmer" and growing corn is a really hard-hitting dose of reality. I shouldn't have done this, because it all hits way too close to home for me.
I realize that the shortest stalks are likely to be genetic dead ends, without offspring. At least not without a ton of help, and a lot of luck.
What's going to happen is that, because of the size and location of this "crop", I'll need to hand-pollinate the stalks. I have choices to make, and they're going to be just as "heightist" as humanity is, because I have no room for platitudes or self-deception.
The tallest plants get the most sunlight, have the largest leaves to generate more nutrients via photosynthesis, and have the deepest roots to obtain more nutrients and water from the soil. They will provide the biggest, best, and healthiest ears of corn. The pollen I use from the male parts of these plants will all come from the tallest stalks.
The shortest plants are unlikely to naturally cross-pollinate any of the other plants without my help, because gravity dictates that their pollinators are too low to the ground. I'm not going to help them with this, because I might want seed corn out of the cobs I get, and I don't want my next generation of crops to be stunted.
I will, however, pollinate the female parts of these plants, with pollen from the taller plants. At least then I'll increase my yield. Also, if the pollen comes from taller plants, there's a chance that seed corn from these shorter plants will be taller and healthier in the next generation. This is very similar to how short stature in humans only matters for men, and is almost irrelevant for women. Also why it makes sense that women want to mate with taller men, regardless of their own height.
No other factors really matter. Could those shorter plants be more disease resistant, and live healthier and longer? Perhaps, but there are no significant sources of disease in my back yard, and a plant living longer than harvesting time provides no value to me or any of the rest of the crop. In fact, it blocks part of the sunlight for the other crops, and "steals" nutrients from the soil that the taller plants next to it could use. These plants probably shouldn't have been allowed to keep growing in the first place. Very much like the prevailing sentiment out there that "short men should just kill themselves."
Could those same plants have some other survival adaptation I haven't thought of? Are they more intelligent than the other plants or something? It doesn't matter, because they will always have a distinct set of disadvantages that they won't generally overcome unless they're some kind of super mutant. Much like how a shorter man doesn't just need to be successful, or even twice as successful as his taller peers, but beyond amazing in ways that less than one in a million guys ever achieve. And/or extremely lucky.
I find it amusing, but also somewhat sad, how much delusion, denial, and rationalization people have when it comes to how natural selection for humanity works. When you're growing corn, you can't indulge in any of this if you want a good harvest.
So yes, I'm being heightist myself, and for very practical reasons. It's just surprising to me how well all of this relates to humanity, and my role in it. It's all things I already knew and understood, but somehow putting height discrimination into practice myself, in a tangible way, brings the lessons all home in a way that I never expected.
Aside: The funniest part is that with the particular breed of corn I'm growing, the dividing line between "short" and "tall" happens to be almost exactly my height. That feels like some kind of cruel cosmic joke.
2018-08-13 Corn Stalks
Being a "farmer" and growing corn is a really hard-hitting dose of reality. I shouldn't have done this, because it all hits way too close to home for me.
I realize that the shortest stalks are likely to be genetic dead ends, without offspring. At least not without a ton of help, and a lot of luck.
What's going to happen is that, because of the size and location of this "crop", I'll need to hand-pollinate the stalks. I have choices to make, and they're going to be just as "heightist" as humanity is, because I have no room for platitudes or self-deception.
The tallest plants get the most sunlight, have the largest leaves to generate more nutrients via photosynthesis, and have the deepest roots to obtain more nutrients and water from the soil. They will provide the biggest, best, and healthiest ears of corn. The pollen I use from the male parts of these plants will all come from the tallest stalks.
The shortest plants are unlikely to naturally cross-pollinate any of the other plants without my help, because gravity dictates that their pollinators are too low to the ground. I'm not going to help them with this, because I might want seed corn out of the cobs I get, and I don't want my next generation of crops to be stunted.
I will, however, pollinate the female parts of these plants, with pollen from the taller plants. At least then I'll increase my yield. Also, if the pollen comes from taller plants, there's a chance that seed corn from these shorter plants will be taller and healthier in the next generation. This is very similar to how short stature in humans only matters for men, and is almost irrelevant for women. Also why it makes sense that women want to mate with taller men, regardless of their own height.
No other factors really matter. Could those shorter plants be more disease resistant, and live healthier and longer? Perhaps, but there are no significant sources of disease in my back yard, and a plant living longer than harvesting time provides no value to me or any of the rest of the crop. In fact, it blocks part of the sunlight for the other crops, and "steals" nutrients from the soil that the taller plants next to it could use. These plants probably shouldn't have been allowed to keep growing in the first place. Very much like the prevailing sentiment out there that "short men should just kill themselves."
Could those same plants have some other survival adaptation I haven't thought of? Are they more intelligent than the other plants or something? It doesn't matter, because they will always have a distinct set of disadvantages that they won't generally overcome unless they're some kind of super mutant. Much like how a shorter man doesn't just need to be successful, or even twice as successful as his taller peers, but beyond amazing in ways that less than one in a million guys ever achieve. And/or extremely lucky.
I find it amusing, but also somewhat sad, how much delusion, denial, and rationalization people have when it comes to how natural selection for humanity works. When you're growing corn, you can't indulge in any of this if you want a good harvest.
So yes, I'm being heightist myself, and for very practical reasons. It's just surprising to me how well all of this relates to humanity, and my role in it. It's all things I already knew and understood, but somehow putting height discrimination into practice myself, in a tangible way, brings the lessons all home in a way that I never expected.
Aside: The funniest part is that with the particular breed of corn I'm growing, the dividing line between "short" and "tall" happens to be almost exactly my height. That feels like some kind of cruel cosmic joke.
