Today's logical fallacy is the Appeal to Nature - the idea that something must be good, healthy, superior, or justified simply because it's "natural." It shows up everywhere from marketing to medicine to personal bias, and it's one of those fallacies that feels right if you don't think about it too hard.

You see this all the time in food advertising. "Organic" has become a buzzword - a marketing goldmine that doesn't necessarily mean anything of real substance. Now, I'll admit, on a personal level, I think organic fruit does taste better. Especially raspberries and blueberries. They're plumper, sweeter, and they don't turn into mush after three days. So yeah, I buy organic. But not because I think it's inherently healthier or more virtuous - I just like how it tastes. That's a preference, not a fallacy. My dogs can tell the difference too. LOL.

But here's the issue: people conflate "natural" with "good." That's where it breaks down. Arsenic is natural. Cyanide is natural. Poison ivy, rattlesnake venom, and mold spores are all natural. That doesn't mean you want them in your breakfast smoothie. "Natural" isn't a synonym for "safe" or "wise." It just means it exists without human tampering. That's it. Solar radiation is natural too, and it's good for you in small doses. That doesn't mean you want to bask in it all day long - especially here in SW Florida. Trust me. I know. *1

You see this kind of thinking in alternative medicine circles too. Someone says, "I don't trust those artificial medicines - I prefer natural remedies." But just because something came from a root or a leaf doesn't mean it's effective. And just because something was synthesized in a lab doesn't mean it's harmful. In fact, the entire point of pharmaceutical science is isolating what works, improving consistency, and reducing side effects. You can't just sprinkle some crushed bark in a cup and call it superior. That's not medicine. That's wishful thinking. *2

In IT, the appeal to nature shows up in surprising places. I've seen folks resist cloud storage or virtualization tools because they're "not real" or "too abstract." They want to see blinking lights and spinning disks - something physical. Something they can touch. But physical doesn't mean better. Just ask anyone who's lost all their data because their server sat too close to a leaking ceiling tile. In my career, I've literally had company owners refuse to use any cloud-based backup service because "it's not natural to store data off-site." They argue local, physical backups are safer "because you can see and touch them." The fallacy? Physical doesn't always mean better. Hard drives fail, buildings flood, and off-site replication is standard for a reason. I use three separate off-site backups for my critical data. *3

In development, it can turn into a kind of coding purism. A programmer might scoff at using libraries or frameworks because they want to write everything from scratch. "That's the natural way to do it," they say. But reinventing the wheel over and over again doesn't make you a better coder. It just makes your wheels worse. Using the collective knowledge of thousands of developers doesn't make your work artificial - it makes it efficient.

In the world of Star Trek, there are a couple of great examples. First, in Star Trek: Insurrection, the Ba'ku reject all advanced technology in favor of a so-called "natural" way of life. But their peaceful lifestyle is only sustainable because they live on a planet soaked in metaphasic radiation that reverses aging. That's not nature - that's plot armor. They've built an entire philosophy on the appeal to nature, but it only works because of a massive, unnatural advantage.

Another case is Worf, who often refuses medical treatment, preferring to heal on his own because it's "more honorable" or "more natural." Sure, that's very Klingon of him, but try explaining that to someone who's bleeding internally in sickbay. "Let the body heal itself" is a great sentiment until the body gives out.

Here's the bottom line: just because something is natural doesn't mean it's good. And just because something is synthetic doesn't mean it's bad. Just ask Mr. Data. If you're going to make a decision - whether it's about what to eat, what to buy, or how to handle your health - base it on evidence, not the packaging. Remember, snake venom is 100% organic, gluten-free, and proudly GMO-free. Doesn't mean you should drink it. *4

LLAP
RR

*1 - Honestly, the worst sunburn I ever got was in Maine. I had been living in Florida for a couple of years and went up north for a little vacation in July to put a dent in the local lobstah population. One day I was out on a hiking trail with my shirt off. It felt cool out - probably in the low 70s - and I was used to 95-degree, humid, melt-your-face-off Florida heat. So I figured, "No big deal, I live in Florida, I'm used to the sun." What I didn't realize was that the cooler air was fooling me. It was keeping my skin from feeling hot, but I was still getting absolutely scorched. Same thing happened to me in the Caribbean once. I was snorkeling, back exposed, floating on the surface. The water was cooling my skin, so I didn't feel it, but that UV radiation was still hammering me. Be careful with the sun. Skin cancer is no joke.

*2 - You know what they call "alternative medicine" that actually works? Medicine. If the homeopathic remedy that you're using actually had scientific evidence to back it, the pharmaceutical industry would have capitalized on it years ago.

*3 - I use Wasabi for all of my videos and other critical files in two locations - an East coast and a West coast backup server (replicated bucket). I also have a backup job that copies everything to Google Drive.

*4 - The irony of the anti-GMO crowd is that they're often munching on bananas, seedless grapes, while petting their fluffy golden retrievers - all of which are genetically modified. Just not in a lab. Humans have been playing nature's editor since the first farmer said, "Hey, I like the sweet ones better. Let's plant more of those." Modern tools just make the process faster and more precise. But somehow, if a lab coat is involved, it's poison.

Newsflash: almost everything you eat is a GMO. Not because of some evil corporation, but because ancient farmers selectively bred plants and animals to suit human needs. You think wild strawberries were the size of ping pong balls? Or that ancient cows just naturally walked around with udders like milk balloons? Nature didn't design these things. People did. We've always been messing with genetics. Now we just have better tools.

The whole uproar over GMOs is one of the more persistent modern myths. People hear "genetically modified" and immediately picture some Frankenstein corn spliced together in a secret underground lab. But the truth is, we've been genetically modifying crops and animals for thousands of years. Corn didn't start out as those plump, golden ears you buy at the grocery store - it was a tough little grass called teosinte with barely a few edible kernels. Bananas, watermelons, red delicious apples, even modern dogs - none of these look or behave anything like their original wild forms. We just used selective breeding instead of CRISPR.