“Two randomly selected trees are not likely to be more closely related than any two other randomly selected plants. They're not a family but rather a strategy that evolution has rediscovered several times separately."
- Mitch Hedburg
So, it stands to reason evolution took animals down the path of taking advantage of that source several times.
Long after humans spread out across the stars, maybe the perfect human consuming predator will emerge.
It already emerged. Corporations.
It's more like people are corporations' gut bacteria that are always in dire health because the organism loves junk food of all kinds so much and sometimes is doing drugs too.
Plus ants can't provide all the nutrients we need.
Animals are expert foragers. A deer can get to 200lbs or more eating what a deer tends to eat just fine. You will struggle to forage like a deer in that same environment, but you can coopt the deer's superior foraging abilities by simply eating it. And if you have a herd of animals you shepherd, not only are they making use of biomass you can't yourself make use off, but they are acting as a store of biomass keeping it fresh and available until you decide to cull some of the herd.
I think I can live off just the fire ants in my yard. Not to mention all the neighbors. Even with constantly baiting them, it's hard not have at least 1 hill active at all times during the summer, as the neighbors are dumb and just spray. So they just end up moving.
It is also much easier to capture and butcher a cow than the equivalent mass/protein of ants.
havblue•2w ago
"Expert Wasted Entire Life Studying Anteaters" -The Onion