The Universe as I know it

But to the room full of world leaders bombarding him with Astorphage breeding questions when he arrived at the Vat. Like he JUST got there and he's dizzy and sick and they were all shouting and muscle memory just kicked in, you gotta believe him, he wasn't even thinking.

They'd all be so shocked it would work though.

He'd have .001 second to panic, like did he really just do that, and then its either control or loose control of the room just like any middle school class.

He'd still have his hand up like "Okay. Who wants to go first."

And Eva would watch like three people actually, legitimately, raise their hands and wait to be called.

A photo of anything else, seeing it at a smaller size, means missing some amount of detail, anything from a sense of depth to small components. Other cars all have small details which are usually related to issues like safety, aerodynamics, ergonomics, aesthetics and so forth. Many of these details are required to operate safely, which you might not even realize, including things like the curvature and shape of bumpers, visibility through mirrors, window design, and so forth.

The Cybertruck has none of these elements. The aesthetics, such as they are, revolve around specifically reducing and minimizing details, similar to the minimalist appearance in expensive houses. It does not include much in the way of safety design, or fuel efficient design (which still matters electric or not), or even ergonomics. Its lack of comfort to passengers is one of many notable faults. It is often described as resembling a child's drawing or bad render, and it's for the same reason. In both cases, the images lack fundamental elements which are even present in cars manufactured over a hundred years ago. Why does it look like that? Because it's a car shape minus every detail of a car that can be removed - full stop. Not just safely removed, but removed while still somewhat meeting the definition of being a car.

When you scale up something blocky but still a car, like a Jeep or something, you can see all the details. Even as square as a Jeep is, it has bumpers rounded and extended to reduce pedestrian injuries, crumple zones, flowing lines at specific points to reduce drag and aid fuel economy, clearly marked signal lights, doors built with human entry and exit in mind, windows that shatter safely but can't be peeled off the frame by hand, collision detection, fuel tanks that won't explode and so on. If you project a picture of a Cybertruck on the side of a building at actual size, it looks pretty much like a real life Cybertruck. A dumpster looks like a Cybertruck because it's the same zero detail shape. You think it looks big because your brain is going "wow there's that shape that has the detail of an image on my phone screen, wait why is it a thousand times bigger than the same image?"

When you scale up a Cybertruck it no substantive change in detail level, which makes it looks exactly the same, and that feels wrong. It looks like a toy at any size because a toy isn't supposed to work within and around living people, it just rolls along the ground and you try not to trip or choke on it. The bigger version of the small thing should come into sharper focus in person. A Cybertruck does not.

What critters are common in your neighborhood, but really exciting to visitors?

they knew that space was there because they can perceive it directly. it's literally right overhead all the time for their entire evolution. they know the faces of thousands, millions of stars, as soon as they tip their faces up. eridani is a name from two thousand years ago. all their stars have been named and known and watched and sung about for longer than any individual human civilization. they have always known the eridian star was there.

'Medicinal' does NOT mean 'good for you and safe to eat all the time'. A plant being 'medicinal' does NOT mean that eating it, without any idea of WHY and HOW it's considered medicinal, is a good idea. It is UNWISE to consume a plant that has a long history of use in a way that DOES NOT have a long history of use.

In addition to learning that a plant is edible, you need to learn how it is eaten, what part is eaten, when it's harvested, and how to harvest it sustainably and in a way that supports its continued existence (unless it's invasive). If people only eat the ripe berries as food, then don't eat unripe berries. Don't. Eat. Unripe. Berries. UNLESS! There's! precedent! For that plant!

Anyways, yes. Medicinal plants are medicines. They have drug interactions and side effects. You can overdose. Modern pharmaceuticals are a good thing because you know exactly how much of the active ingredient you are consuming, and there is a lot of information on the safety.

I honestly feel that the uses of medicinal plants are pretty narrow in a world where pharmaceutical drugs can be manufactured, because of all of these reasons

There is no hard boundary between "natural" and "unnatural," like, lots of medicines are the exact same compounds found in medicinal plants, except when it's manufactured you know exactly how much of the active ingredient you're ingesting.

And lots of those compounds are REALLY toxic above a certain dose because. well. They Are Drugs.