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I read a science fiction story where the human crew lands on a planet populated by intelligent alligators. The alligators produce hundreds of babies at a time. The Queen invites the humans to dinner and offers them a stew made from her own offspring…

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JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
How is that ever going to provide more energy than you put into it? That makes Matrix levels of sense.

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- flora_explora@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Just think how inefficient most of what we do is. Most of our modern society is based on indulgence or complex societal norms (very inefficient from an energy perspective!). It is frankly absurd to think we would do anything only based on its efficiency… Similarly, an intelligent alligator society may just eat their young out of fun or because of societal norms.
  
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  - Ephera@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Yeah, perhaps the most fitting example here is non-vegetarian diets: Feed plants to livestock. Livestock uses up some energy for its own existence. Then feed livestock to humans.
    
    There is a slight difference in that livestock can ingest leaves, which we cannot, but in industrialized farms, they typically get fed produce anyways, to make them grow more quickly.
    
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- flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I assume it would be a delicacy served for special occasions. Or a desert.
  
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- FooBarrington@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Maybe it’s just a delicacy.
  
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- Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Although the alligator has a heavy body and a slow metabolism, it is capable of short bursts of speed, especially in very short lunges. Alligators’ main prey are smaller animals they can kill and eat with a single bite. They may kill larger prey by grabbing it and dragging it into the water to drown. Alligators consume food that cannot be eaten in one bite
  
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  - JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    What does have to do with the energy efficiency of eating your own children?
    
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    Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    It’s early, maybe you need some more coffee?
    
    They would eat other things as well as their babies.
    
    Also, did you support Wikipedia?
    
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