[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"fs:short-essays/alcohol":3},{"type":4,"path":5,"title":6,"date":7,"classification":8,"department":8,"description":9,"contentType":10,"wordCount":11,"bodyHtml":12,"icon":10},"file","short-essays/alcohol","On the Absence of Alcohol","2025-02-01","","The Galactic Collective has no alcohol. This is not due to prohibition. It is due to common sense.","short-essay",182,"\u003Cp>The Galactic Collective has no alcohol.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This is not due to prohibition, moral objection, or bureaucratic oversight. The Collective simply never discovered it.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Alcohol is produced through fermentation. Fermentation is the process by which microorganisms convert sugars into waste products. The waste product, in this case, is ethanol.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Arguably, then, beer is \u003Cem>yeast excrement\u003C/em>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Cheers.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The process also produces carbon dioxide, which causes the fermenting substance to bubble, foam, and emit a pungent odour. The colour and texture change, and to any outside observer, the substance appears to be decomposing.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Naturally, every species in the Collective reached the same conclusion: the food has gone off. Chuck it out.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This is a sensible response.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Humans, at some point in their history, looked at a bubbling, foaming, foul-smelling container of decomposing grain and thought: \u003Cem>I'm going to drink that.\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>They did.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>They did it again.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>They have been doing it for approximately ten thousand years.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>This is not a sensible response. But it does explain rather a lot about humans.\u003C/p>"]