What if people evolved with the abilty to use photosynthesis?

Question

It's just a question that's been running through my mind for a while. So how would anatomy be different? How would society reflect this? Different architecture? Behaviors?

Answer 1

I read a science fiction novel about a group of people messing around in genetics.  Everyone was trying to stop them.  In the end, these people created a treatment that made people photosynthetic.  The people who took the treatment formed their own culture and was a lot more laid back.  Almost hippie like.  They did not have to worry about food ever again.  They even absorbed nutrients from their clothes (as long as the clothes were natural fibers or materials).  The rest of the world kept going along at its normal breakneck speed.

Answer 2

The top contender is right. We do use photosynthesis indirectly by eating plants. Or maybe animals that ate plants. However, I think it's obviously you mean if we got our own energy directly through photosynthesis.

The main issue is not immobility. It's reduced mobility. For example a photosynthesis based metabolism might give us some thing barely better than the mobility of trees. But that's not a problem on its own. It just means our lives would be on a different timescale.

Take trees as an example

Wars between groups (maybe over highground), desire to breed, communication (by chemical signaling)... all the same just slower.

Now if we all ate uranium and had a natural nuclear metabolism (I know im stretching here but hey) what progress we would make!! In fact we would probably have had our run by now.

Answer 3

This probably would change the infrastructure of the world. Farming would lose profits (we would still need it for the winter, so maybe hydroponics would gain popularity). Buildings would probably be built to allow in light. For behavior, I'm not really sure. May stay the same.

Answer 4

There would probably be no such thing as a cheesburger. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Hardees, and Rallys would be out of business.

And probably nobody would eat salads, because that would be too much like cannibalism.

Answer 5

People have already evolved the ability to use photosynthesis.  They have the brain which produces the intellect to do farming.

If people themselves became photosynthetic, they would be immobile.  Photosynthesis would not provide sufficient energy for mobility.

Answer 6

We wouldn't wear clothes, and we would spend more time in the sun.  But it could meet only a very small portion of our energy needs.  That's what the food chain is about.  The US has about 1.1 acres of farmland per person, so that gives you a clue about how much photosynthesis area you'd need.  Further, animals do some of the preprocessing of plant output for us.  It's difficult to meet a human's nutritional needs with plants alone.