The only thing standing between us and the reality you've presented is a code of ethics written into the dna of our humanity.

I’d actually say it’s written in the code of ethics pushed upon us by society. 😉

If it was written in our DNA, people wouldn’t have been doing it up until recently. 😛

I have been a military advisor for quite a while. One thing that I've learned--and teach--is that after people haven't eaten for three days, the veneer of civilization pretty much wears through. Then most people will do anything in order to eat.

One of my favorite movies--and books--is "In the Heart of the Sea," by Nathaniel Philbrick. This is the true story upon which Herman Melville's novel, "Moby Dick," was based. After the "white whale" destroyed their whaling ship, the crew took to the whaleboats. Long story short, they were thousands of miles from land, and they resorted to cannibalism. But they didn't just eat the dead--they drew lots to see who was going to get shot--and eaten--next.

There is a story about some Spanish explorers in America who were kept in a small hut by the Indians, and were not fed. They ended up eating each other.

In a survival situation, expect something like a "Lord of the Flies" scenario.

If you are not big and strong, or have weapons, you can expect to be eaten.

This kind of thing plays out on a lesser scale in most human situations. Look at your average workplace, and you can see predators and prey, the "haves" and the "have nots."

There is probably something like these concerns in the backs of our minds when Docteur Ralph and I fondle our weapons . . . we have decided that we do not wish to be eaten in some future apocalyptic scenario!

I recommend checking out the 1970s movie, "Soylent Green," which starred Charlton Heston. In this movie, the dead were collected and processed into food for the living. Should you get tired of the "rat race," you could go into a euthanasia center and die a peaceful death--just before you were made into food.

So, yes, truth be told--in most survival situations, people would--and usually do--resort to cannibalism. Some Russians told me that during the war it was not unusual for cannibalism to have been practiced in some Soviet communities.

but isn't dna subject to evolution?

Personally, if it came down to death, I'd do it...

It would just depend on the circumstances for me...There's a wonderful Guy Pierce movie that deals with the idea of cannibalism and when it's appropriate, when it's not! It's a great combination of dark humor and gross shots. I believe it's called Ravenous.

If, when fine dining, you see 'long pig' on the menu..

I think if I was going to die, I would eat another human. I like to think that I would wait until they were dead.

I would also sacrifice myself so that my loved ones could eat. I guess I would have to talk to them extensively about love for them, making something of themselves, and that we would all meet again someday....etc etc

I think that if you eat human meat too often, it affects your brain (physically)... and according to legend, some guy in the Packer party got a "taste" for it and chose it over the cows in the field...

As far as eating criminals and yucky ppl.... I know this is nonsense and sort of insane.... but I wouldn't want to ingest their spirit of evil-ness. I know: weirdly superstitious....

Not sure it'd get approved by the FDA. Shakes and death have been observed in the long term (a matter of years apparently from relatively small scale ritualistic practice), mainly caused by the brain & innards. It's called kuru.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

(Sorry if it shatters your lecter desires.)

Evolution is supposedly extremely slow & subtle, takes millions of years rather than the thousands in the foundation of societal structure. The other day, noted a mention of eyes still being optimised for aquatic / amphibious lifestyle since before land life began, with only various adjustments for different animals. Granted, it was on the tyson show, wouldn't call that well established, but still.

As much as I enjoyed the Hannibal TV show, I don't think I would enjoy people food. That being said, if it was life and death, with no other option, then I would.

But I wouldn't eat criminals, I mean can you imagine eating Rolf Harris of Charles Bronson, I bet they taste disgusting.

There was a man in Germany who wanted to be eaten. He found a German computer programmer willing to eat him. The programmer killed and ate him--actually ate quite a bit of him. Of course, the law says you cannot legally consent to being killed and eaten, so the cannibal was sentenced to prison.

In some cultures, there is a ritual eating of dead people. And in one case I read about years ago, there was a tribe--I think in New Guinea--in which a woman's husband died. She knew that the chief relished human flesh, and she begged him not to eat her husband. The chief seemingly relented, and the husband was buried--but the chief dug him up and dined on his corpse, much to the widow's chagrin.

Interestingly enough, we feel more squeamish about inserting a fork into a corpse's flesh than in bayonetting a living person.

same, bad vibes...

If I was hungry enough I'm sure I'd eat a person. I kill things and cut them up and eat them a lot anyway... fish, deer, quail and pheasant. My shoes have blood on them right now from the last deer I field dressed, that thing weighed more than my wife.

Before she was dressed.. or after?

I don't know if all human meat is dangerous, probably not, but like yeti mentioned there are documented cases of cannibalistic tribes that have suffered for it. I think it's kind of like mad cow disease. Anyway, I hardly eat meat, I wouldn't eat a human. I don't even like how people feed animals the same kind of animals.

There's a prion disease affecting American deer and elk--it's called chronic wasting disease. It resembles mad cow disease.

Tests with monkeys indicate that it is transmissible to humans.

Are you listening, Docteur Ralph? ;-)

And those prions cannot be destroyed even in an autoclave!

Wait, are you planning to eat your co-workers?

Tennessee is a Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) free state as of now according to the TWRA. And I can see how animals could evolve very quickly to something that killed them. I mean if something wipes out 90% of the population and all you have left is people that are immune to the disease and their children are born immune to the disease it would only take one generation.

Eating human flesh is bad for you.

The Aztecs and Mayas played a ball game in which the losers were presumably killed and eaten.

It would be interesting to see variants of that game played today.

You would have very few ball players making it to retirement age!

But what of things like beef, pork or chicken? How do we know for sure that the chicken we ate wasn't an evil chicken? Like...sitting in the corner looking at all the other chickens, going, ("I'm gonna get me some fine tail feathers tonight - oh yeaah!")
What if I ate that evil chicken and suddenly...I find myself at a KFC drive thru on the way to some chicken ranch? What do I do if the fence is electric? I mean, it's a max-slam joint for chickens - they're all guilty of something, otherwise they wouldn't be there, right?
What if I sat in the very same corner that the evil chicken sat in and started to eat chicken in front of the other chickens, looking at them dead straight in their moon struck eyes, can you imagine the trauma? Does the USDA OR FFA offer out-patient programs for chickens that have suffered this kind of psychological terror? What....what if I become a chicken psychopath?!
So many possibilities, so many questions.

Could get ugly or... maybe not?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Ranch_(Ne...]

Long pig is BEST pig! Break out the Chianti.