Food and Civilization

Adin, an 8th grader Jcarrot blogger, just read The Omnivore's Dilemma and reminded me that Michael Pollan started by thinking deeply about the question "What should we have for dinner?"

Of course, no-one has thought more about this than Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who wrote that civilizations go through three stages: Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication. These stages correspond to the questions, What are we going to eat?, Why do we eat?, and Where are we going to eat lunch?

He also wrote perhaps history's most sublime philosophical comment on food:

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.