We've been harnessing fire for over 400,000 years

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/11/nx-s1-5640109/early-humans-fi...

> The discovery suggests early humans were making fire more than 350,000 years earlier than previously known.

> "For me, personally, it's the most exciting discovery of my 40-year career," Ashton said.

A mutation in our ancestors 10 million years ago likely spread due ground fruit fermenting, becoming toxic to other creatures thus creating an ecological niche. So, even if they were not human it’s reasonable to say the love affair is that old and shared with other species.

“Ten million years ago a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and gorillas acquired a mutation that let them remove ethanol from the body more efficiently. This adaptation coincided with a change of habitat. Tropical forests were collapsing, notes Robin Dunbar of Oxford University. Some 90% of apes went extinct. One lineage survived by leaving the trees and foraging on the ground.

Whereas apes in trees gobbled fresh fruit, those on the ground found fallen fruit, which ferments. Thus, our ancestors may have acquired a taste for alcohol–which allowed them to use these scarce calories. This “drunken monkey” hypothesis suggests that a love of the smell and taste of alcohol, the sign of an energy-rich fruit, gave our ancestors an edge. Their chosen poison would have been fairly weak. A study of overripe wild Panamanian palm fruits found none stronger than 5% alcohol—about the same as a Heineken.“

> humanity hasn't existed for anywhere close to 10M years.

From the article:

" Humans, unusually, have a pair of enzymes that turf it out like night-club bouncers. Our ability to process alcohol has deep evolutionary roots. Ten million years ago a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and gorillas acquired a mutation that let them remove ethanol from the body more efficiently. This adaptation coincided with a change of habitat. Tropical forests were collapsing, notes Robin Dunbar of Oxford University. Some 90% of apes went extinct. One lineage survived by leaving the trees and foraging on the ground."

I haven’t read the whole thing, but it starts off talking about a gene mutation in our ancestors species 10 million years ago that lets us process alcohol. So they are taking a little artistic license.

It's just The Economist: they specialise in click bait written in a dry, British professor style.

Welcome to the world of headline writing.

https://archive.is/KVT11

Humanity's gene for processing alcohol has existed for 10M years, and that's what they are actually talking about.

clickbait 101

So I just looked this up. It's a prodrug for GHB, which is a notoriously dangerous drug.

It's about the same danger as alcohol... Except that because it's taken as a powder, it's much easier to overdose. And it's also extremely dangerous to take with alcohol.

A better alternative to alcohol this isn't.

For anyone taking this comment seriously, please research and understand the potential long term impacts of GBL before going near it. It's neurotoxic and can cause brainfog and lowered cognitive ability. It's also lethal in the wrong dose, with a tiny margin for error.

It's by no means a safe alcohol replacement

What a weird thing to say. There are many CNS depressants.

Don't speak for people. I don't like getting a buzz - I don't like anything at all that alters my mood chemically. I really dislike it as an idea, deeply. But I love one cocktail or one drink of Scotch or one beer, sipped casually - for the taste.

You're stating your opinions as fact. Personally I love the taste of many cocktails, wines, and beer. They taste good to me.

I think drinking for the buzz demonstrates an immaturity with alcohol consumption. One many have, but an immaturity nonetheless.