Chris Kempes

And why it's corn has historical and interesting reasons. But maybe you could predict that you really do go towards monoculture for any technological species because of these economies of scale and efficiencies and so forth. At the same time, You know, the other pressure that we see, and we have a whole project trying to understand this, is how and why human systems diversify in cities.

And why it's corn has historical and interesting reasons. But maybe you could predict that you really do go towards monoculture for any technological species because of these economies of scale and efficiencies and so forth. At the same time, You know, the other pressure that we see, and we have a whole project trying to understand this, is how and why human systems diversify in cities.

But cities are doing the opposite thing, where as cities get bigger and bigger, you get a great expansion in the number of diversity of professions, types of restaurants, services provided, you know, that sort of... abstracted human landscape is becoming more and more diverse as the system size scales up. Maybe those effects feed back to the types of things we eat.

But cities are doing the opposite thing, where as cities get bigger and bigger, you get a great expansion in the number of diversity of professions, types of restaurants, services provided, you know, that sort of... abstracted human landscape is becoming more and more diverse as the system size scales up. Maybe those effects feed back to the types of things we eat.

So you can imagine, for example, and there have been movements like this in the US, but you can imagine people's preferences around diverse or heirloom or organic food starts to push things back into diversity dimension in the same way that cities That have the cities that are bigger and have more wealth, have a higher diversity of services. Right.

So you can imagine, for example, and there have been movements like this in the US, but you can imagine people's preferences around diverse or heirloom or organic food starts to push things back into diversity dimension in the same way that cities That have the cities that are bigger and have more wealth, have a higher diversity of services. Right.

So you can imagine that feedback starting to push things in the other direction. And there I think it's complicated to say, well, will we end up with a monocrop or will we end up with an unbelievable rich amount of diversity? Because that's what human preference is. I don't know. I don't have an answer to that.

So you can imagine that feedback starting to push things in the other direction. And there I think it's complicated to say, well, will we end up with a monocrop or will we end up with an unbelievable rich amount of diversity? Because that's what human preference is. I don't know. I don't have an answer to that.

Exactly. Yeah. And I think to your point about what we'd predict, the surprise is that in every other ecology, we see one very particular distribution of body sizes. Right. So we see a power law distribution of body sizes in lots of different taxonomic groups, whether that be mammals or bacteria or unicellular eukaryotes or plants. And we have good theory for why that's true.

Exactly. Yeah. And I think to your point about what we'd predict, the surprise is that in every other ecology, we see one very particular distribution of body sizes. Right. So we see a power law distribution of body sizes in lots of different taxonomic groups, whether that be mammals or bacteria or unicellular eukaryotes or plants. And we have good theory for why that's true.

And so the question is, so then the big surprise would be, okay, why do I have this one body size? That's like a, a huge peak, right? And almost could be a, almost could be a signal that you have something, some strange organism around selecting on that. Right.

And so the question is, so then the big surprise would be, okay, why do I have this one body size? That's like a, a huge peak, right? And almost could be a, almost could be a signal that you have something, some strange organism around selecting on that. Right.

Um, you know, I think of leaf cutter ants as well that, you know, are, uh, growing this one sort of fungus that is likely in much higher abundance than you would expect, uh, from any other sort of ecological consideration of that. And those leafcutter ants are also doing farming, right? They're also doing agriculture. It happens to be underground. But it's the same sort of thing.

Um, you know, I think of leaf cutter ants as well that, you know, are, uh, growing this one sort of fungus that is likely in much higher abundance than you would expect, uh, from any other sort of ecological consideration of that. And those leafcutter ants are also doing farming, right? They're also doing agriculture. It happens to be underground. But it's the same sort of thing.

They're gathering resources to feed one crop species that they really like, whether you want to call a fungus a crop or... Or livestock is probably a debate for a taxonomist. But anyway, I think those sorts of surprises might almost tell you that there's some organism influencing environment through technology or intelligence or preference or something like that.

They're gathering resources to feed one crop species that they really like, whether you want to call a fungus a crop or... Or livestock is probably a debate for a taxonomist. But anyway, I think those sorts of surprises might almost tell you that there's some organism influencing environment through technology or intelligence or preference or something like that.

Yes, absolutely.

Yes, absolutely.