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jimrandomh comments on Intelligence Amplification Open Thread - Less Wrong
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Being able to synthesize vitamin C would have been a huge evolutionary advantage, given how many people died of scurvy throughout history, but evolution never managed it. Other chemicals have the same problem: evolution is severely limited in how many things it can try, which sorts of chemicals it can try, and how large the selection effect has to be for it to take off.
I'm not sure whether it applies to ascorbic acid specifically but for many essential vitamins (and amino acids) humans actually lost the ability to synthesise them where some of our ancestors could. Evolution had higher priorities and didn't bother maintaining those adaptations when the environment provided a sufficient supply.
It does apply to C: all mammals but primates, bats, and guinea pigs synthesize it.