this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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Without a doubt, the larynx/esophagus connection. It’s one of the biggest design flaws in the human body. Beyond the discomfort and coughing that occurs when food or drink “goes down the wrong pipe,” there’s the possibility of sudden, agonizing death at random when you’re just taking in sustenance. Eating and breathing through the same tube is for chumps.
I have allergies and usually have sinus infections at least once or twice a year. Every time this is brought up, I wonder how many people would suffocate by not being able to breathe through their mouth. It has its drawbacks but only two small openings that are prone to extended blockages for breathing does too.
I guess if you were fixing this situation as OP wanted and made an additional "pipe" you'd inevitably just have to add an additional opening somewhere. Maybe we could have blowholes.
But evolution ended up giving us two external tubes to breathe. My conclusion is that its better to have redundancy in external tubes openings for air.
So, to avoid the efficiency of a branch that lets us eat and breathe from our mouths would you make it so we can't breathe from our mouths and we still have 2 tubes to breathe as redundancy? If so, where would you place the extra tube opening? Head or further away? Toe or back would help act as a snorkel, I'd think.
Good question, I hadn't really thought about it much. I'm just jealous of dogs, who can eat and breathe simultaneously. Evolution dropped our larynx down low so that we can talk, but evolution only does the best it can with what it has to work with, and a magical redesign could theoretically do better. I wouldn't mind a blowhole, as it would make snorkeling a lot easier!
Gimme dat blowhole mod