I simply do not get it. Why did man come up with the solution to barbeque his food. The prehistoric human that is.

Did he get ill from eating raw food, perhaps. But why would he try cooking it? It makes no sense really, unless it was trial and error, and i do not wish to think that it was a coincidence. If the food tastes better then sure, but why did he cook it in the first place to see if it tasted better?

Did the prehistoric man get ill from eating raw meat?
And why did he begin to cook his food?

Those are basically my questions.
Anyone have the answer to those questions?

I simply do not get it. Why did man come up with the solution to barbeque his food. The prehistoric human that is.

Did he get ill from eating raw food, perhaps. But why would he try cooking it? It makes no sense really, unless it was trial and error, and i do not wish to think that it was a coincidence. If the food tastes better then sure, but why did he cook it in the first place to see if it tasted better?

Did the prehistoric man get ill from eating raw meat?
And why did he begin to cook his food?

Those are basically my questions.
Anyone have the answer to those questions?

Just to clear up a very minor point, "barbecuing" isn't the word you want. That's a certain form of cooking that involves the use of specific sauces. The real word you want is "roasting."

No one knows for sure, of course, but the most accurate guess IS that it was accidental. Food was a very high priority in life at that time and was seldom wasted. If they happened to find an animal that had died in a forest fire, they probably ate it and discovered that it not only tasted better but was more tender as well. All of that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

yes, it does. and i hate it. :) for reasons i intend to disclose in about 4 months when my project is finished.

Although i believe you to be correct, i have not reached any different conclusion myself. But could there be any underlying logic for roasting meat? I doubt that there was, but if an newborn child has been put in isolation in the forest, feeded until he is old enough to hunt and cut down trees by himself. Do you suppose he would come up with the solution to roast his meat? And how and why would this occur? Any thoughts?

Agree. Another explanation might be that when the weather was very cold the meat would have frozen or chilled solid by the time it was taken back to camp, so they thought of throwing it in the fire to warm it up and then realised the benefits of doing that.

cooked meat lasts longer than uncooked meat?

I agree with Light. Accidental discovery seems to be the most plausable explanation.
And perhaps those who cooked their food were less likely to become ill, and as a result more likely to survive longer to pass this skill on, etc., we all know the nuances of evolution.

It is also possible that unpalatable foods became more desirable when cooked.

also its a lot easier to eat cooked meat

cooked meat lasts longer than uncooked meat?

Perhaps, but i am looking for a reason, a trigger for this behaviour. And thanks to tablariddim it might have been discovered. Brilliant. Other suggestions are of course welcome.

Maybe i should tell you that i am a AI researcher, and therefore i cannot rely on trial and error, i need a underlying reason to exist even if it is not a must for an entity behave in that particular way. I am not really trying to find out why Humans began roasting their meat, merely what kind of underlying logic would be neccesary to replicate a similar behaviour in a simulation.

cooked meat lasts longer than uncooked meat?

Absolutely! Though it might not be what you would consider a LOT longer, it does help considerably. Raw meat is covered in microbes that are already attacking it and will quickly lead to spoilage - particulary in warm, damp conditions. Cooking kills almost all of them if done properly.

Maybe i should tell you that i am a AI researcher, and therefore i cannot rely on trial and error, i need a underlying reason to exist even if it is not a must for an entity behave in that particular way. I am not really trying to find out why Humans began roasting their meat, merely what kind of underlying logic would be neccesary to replicate a similar behaviour in a simulation.

Then you face a tremendous hurdle, as do all members of your profession. Because practically everything of any major importance that's been discovered has been through the randomness of trial and error and pure happenstance.

Cooking one's kills takes much longer, especially if limited to very primitive means of making fire. And would ancient man prepare his meat prior to cooking?
Perhaps the prehistorics tried using meat as a source of fuel? Unlikely, I admit!

i have allready considered that. ruled it out, just as you of course. does not sound very logical.

Then you face a tremendous hurdle, as do all members of your profession. Because practically everything of any major importance that's been discovered has been through the randomness of trial and error and pure happenstance.

Yes, indeed. Although i consider my theories and models to be far superior to current AI methodology i cannot rule out the occurrence of "random inventions". This is of course nothing i could ever reproduce.

Precisely.
But it must be said it is very difficult to come up with another reason why perfectly good raw food would be deliberately burned.
Possibly in an attempt to remove fur or feathers without skinning?.

Yet another feasible suggestion. This might of course be the case, although did not the humans begin eating meat because of the cold climate that covered the world that prevented berries from growing? Therefore it sounds likely that they could find frozen animals, that they had to defrost like tablariddim suggested.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so the motivation to cook it might have been a neccesity as in the case of the meat being too cold to eat raw, but some of the brightest inventions happen entirely by accident, so it could have been the case that the meat simply fell into the fire by accident and by the time it was discovered it had cooked.

It is our propensity to make mistakes that eventually prove to be inspired ideas, which sets us apart from AI, which is presumably programmed Not to make mistakes, we also learn from our mistakes, so, perhaps this might be a key element that AI needs, to be more successful.

Agree. Another explanation might be that when the weather was very cold the meat would have frozen or chilled solid by the time it was taken back to camp, so they thought of throwing it in the fire to warm it up and then realised the benefits of doing that.


this is the best one i've heard so far.

Does cooked meat actually taste better than raw meat?

Does cooked meat actually taste better than raw meat?
Try it! :D

Try it!

You don't think it's at all cultural that we prefer cooked meat? It's what we're raised on. We're also told that raw meat, outside of very specific circumstances, is gross and dangerous.

Do you eat bugs? People eat bugs and they enjoy them, but there are many people who find this concept absolutely nauseating.

It is our propensity to make mistakes that eventually prove to be inspired ideas, which sets us apart from AI, which is presumably programmed Not to make mistakes, we also learn from our mistakes, so, perhaps this might be a key element that AI needs, to be more successful.

My model for how humans behave seems to be surprisingly accurate in all possible situations. It also covers actual Intelligence, unlike other “AI”. Creating something out of nothing, basically it is an inventor. How successful it would be though I cannot say, it acts logical (based on knowledge and rules), and Einstein said that not everything can be solved with logic.

The real problem with the AI industry is that too many morons are working in it, it seems somehow that all believe that they are the Einstein in the AI field, yet they all end up saying “Why we have not successfully created Artificial Intelligence is due to the fact that we do not have a good definition of what Intelligence is.”
I would just call that a poor excuse for ignorance

Perhaps some of their fellow cave dwellers saw that others around them were dying off after they ate contaminated old beef so they started to cook it.

Yes, that is a part of the simulation. Many will adapt due to the deaths of others, although they would need a reason, some logic for comming up with the idea of cooking the meat. tablariddim suggestion provides me with a solution that i can work with, a solution that does not involve randomness, despite that trial and error would have solved it, i am confident of this, i am still not satisfied with using trial and error in my AI, i want it to be structured, it should not just guess, it should have a darn good reason for comming up with a wild suggestion as cooking the meat actually is.

Great! that means you could bung us a few quid after you've made your millions :D

You don't think it's at all cultural that we prefer cooked meat? It's what we're raised on. We're also told that raw meat, outside of very specific circumstances, is gross and dangerous.

Do you eat bugs? People eat bugs and they enjoy them, but there are many people who find this concept absolutely nauseating.

Sure, it's cultural, Roman - but it's also more than that. Though you may doubt it until you really try it, cooking certainly will improve the FLAVOR of many meats.

Grab a steak and eat it while it's completely raw. It will taste much better when cooked. Even more to the point, get a chunk of raw pork (yes, I know it can be dangerous) and compare the taste of that to a well-prepared pork roast. The same can be said of many others (mutton, fowl, and more). It also makes the meat MUCH more tender because it breaks down the connective tissue which can be very tough!

There are many seafoods which are very good raw and also equally good cooked, just different. Here's another example - try eating squid raw. It's really tough and stringy, yet many people (including myself) enjoy nice, tender calamari. <Yum>

Yes, I've tried a wide variety of insects (grasshoppers, ants, locust, grubs, fat termites, etc.) and they are all OK but I wouldn't go out of my way to get them.