I almost choked to death on pizza!

[ratiocinator]

That is called a feeding tube... and it will not sustain our lives for what we have to do.

No it isn't. The suggestion was for a separate breathing system - and of course it would sustain us if it was designed properly. If you're thinking of minor tweaks to what we have at the moment, you've totally missed the point.

Combining eating with breathing via one aperture is a stupid design choice. Any engineer that did something that daft would get the sack for not properly considering the hazards.

 

[Kenny]

No it isn't. The suggestion was for a separate breathing system - and of course it would sustain us if it was designed properly. If you're thinking of minor tweaks to what we have at the moment, you've totally missed the point.

Combining eating with breathing via one aperture is a stupid design choice. Any engineer that did something that daft would get the sack for not properly considering the hazards.

And, yet, the issue is not chewing your food before swallowing...

Which bring us back to a full circle... is crashing your car driving 150 mph around a corner a design problem or a improper utilization problem.

Case solved.

 

[ratiocinator]

And, yet, the issue is not chewing your food before swallowing...

Which is quite easily done by accident. The point of a good design is that it should be, as far as possible, foolproof. Combining breathing with eating is just asking for trouble. I can't imagine any competent designer actually making that choice if they were starting from the proverbial 'blank sheet of paper' because it's an obvious hazard from the outset.

 

[Kenny]

Which is quite easily done by accident. The point of a good design is that it should be, as far as possible, foolproof. Combining breathing with eating is just asking for trouble. I can't imagine any competent designer actually making that choice if they were starting from the proverbial 'blank sheet of paper' because it's an obvious hazard from the outset.

And, yet, no one has come up with a better model taking into consideration all other organs, what we do, how we need to do it et al, nor does anyone look at the problems other models may present for us (like to mouths, one for eating and one for breathing). extra space needed, how it affects all other organs et al

No... I believe we have the best engineering model possible.

 

[ratiocinator]

And, yet, no one has come up with a better model taking into consideration all other organs, what we do, how we need to do it et al, nor does anyone look at the problems other models may present for us (like to mouths, one for eating and one for breathing). extra space needed, how it affects all other organs et al

All you need is a separate breathing system. We don't have to take account of the other organs if we're starting from scratch, we can design them to fit (and many could be improved too, because they also have examples of poor design). Extra space wouldn't be a problem, we could make the systems smaller or people bigger. Also, remember the supposed designer (some god) could have made the laws of physics different too.

You seem to want to maintain blind faith that there isn't anything better unless somebody comes up with a fully worked out alternative. You don't need to be a software engineer, and be able to code an alternative, to recognise crap design in an app, or on a website.

 

[metis]

In regards to bad design, you shoulda seen the blind date I once had decades ago.

 

[tas8831]

As much as I like peanut butter M&Ms, I'm not going to eat them anymore if they could pose a choking hazard threat to me. From now on, I'm only go eat pureed foods.

Pureed M&Ms are excellent.

 

[tas8831]

The shared opening of the esophagus and the trachea isn't a very good design. Chewing your food helps, but even water can choke you to death if it goes down the wrong pipe.

Not only that, but the respiratory system in general looks like an afterthought - deriving, as it does, from the already-developing digestive system during organogenesis. As the 'technically' correct route for air passage is through the nasal cavity, as others had mentioned a separate tube for breathing and swallowing would have been the far better design.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Which creates a problem when your nose is stopped up because of an illness (flu, cold etc). You would simply die.

You asked for an engineering solution and two pipes is the solution. Moving the goal post to new problems does not negate that solution. A designer starting from scratch would engineer it so there was no problem.

 

[tas8831]

... in my Christian world view, the physical problems we have ultimately comes from disobedience of man that opened up a curse on the ground of this earth

Can you explain why you are OK with the condemnation of all of humanity for all eternity for the "disobedience" of Yahweh's own first human creations?

Isn't that kind of... immoral?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Not only that, but the respiratory system in general looks like an afterthought - deriving, as it does, from the already-developing digestive system during organogenesis. As the 'technically' correct route for air passage is through the nasal cavity, as others had mentioned a separate tube for breathing and swallowing would have been the far better design.

I agree. But no amount of evidence and reason will convince people that believe they know everything and think for God.

At one time, transplanting a heart was beyond the thinking of most people and they believed that God would never allow it.

Thank goodness their steadfast belief in their knowing with such ironclad assurance was just an artifact of their ignorance.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

That is called a feeding tube... and it will not sustain our lives for what we have to do.

Imaginations are great... but your suggestion isn't functional.

So... a "feeding tube" is what you would call an aperture that allowed air directly into our lungs through our chest?

Or are you saying that having a separate hole dedicated to oxygen intake (sort of like what whales and dolphins have), would reduce our esophagus to a "feeding tube" and that this would somehow make it no longer function for the purposes of feeding?

You're not making much sense Ken.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

And, yet, the issue is not chewing your food before swallowing...

Which bring us back to a full circle... is crashing your car driving 150 mph around a corner a design problem or a improper utilization problem.

Case solved.

You can choke on chewed food. You can choke on small particles. You can choke on water.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Which is quite easily done by accident. The point of a good design is that it should be, as far as possible, foolproof. Combining breathing with eating is just asking for trouble. I can't imagine any competent designer actually making that choice if they were starting from the proverbial 'blank sheet of paper' because it's an obvious hazard from the outset.

Let's not get started on the other end of that system. Running waste management through a theme park?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

And, yet, no one has come up with a better model taking into consideration all other organs, what we do, how we need to do it et al, nor does anyone look at the problems other models may present for us (like to mouths, one for eating and one for breathing). extra space needed, how it affects all other organs et al

No... I believe we have the best engineering model possible.

I have sleep apnea.

 

[ratiocinator]

Let's not get started on the other end of that system. Running waste management through a theme park?

I actually considered mentioning that...

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Running waste management through a theme park?

Only missing the loop-the-loop.

 

[Firelight]

Today, I nearly died by choking to death on a piece of stringy cheese pizza that became caught in my throat. I'd accidentally swallowed this food before it was chewed up. As soon as this piece of cheesy pizza became lodged in my throat, I attempted to clear my throat by swallowing as much as I could in order to down the food from my throat into my stomach. When this maneuver failed to dislodge the food caught in my throat, my last chance of survival was to dislodge the chocking hazard with a strong gag reaction. My reflex of gaging in order to clear my throat saved me from chocking to death on a piece of stringy cheesed pizza . I was shaken up because I could not breath during this ordeal. I wish people had a separate airway passage to their lungs than just the one that is also used to pass food from their mouths to their stomach. With just the throat as the only airway passage for respiration from the nose, mouth to the lungs, people are prone to death by getting their throat obstructed by food. In the United States, the odds of one dying from choking on food is around 1 in 2,535. Deaths by choking U.S. number 1945-2019 | Statista.

Because people's bodies are prone to being choked to death by food, I seriously doubt the human body is intelligently designed.

The Heimlich maneuver can be used to to save somebody from choking to death on food,

Evolution cheated you, too. Why didn’t humans keep the gills or holes in their necks?

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

you are correct but still have made no headway on a better model than what we have for who we are.

Except that I did.

A human that can't choke on food is a better design then a human that can choke on food.

A human with a spine build from the ground up for bipedalism, is a better design then a human with a spine that is just a modified one to walk on all fours which makes it less then perfect and causes lower back pains.

A human that doesn't grow teeth for which there is no room causing hellish pains and the need to pull them out, is a better design then a human that does grow such teeth.

I don't see a single valid reason why any of these would be "impossible".

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

That is called a feeding tube... and it will not sustain our lives for what we have to do.

Imaginations are great... but your suggestion isn't functional.

It seems to work just fine for Dolphins though.

You don't even need imagination. You can just look at nature, where separate feeding tubes already exist.