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Comment by scottLobster | Hacker News Reader

To play devil's advocate, as a species we've spent the vast majority of our existence sleeping on the literal ground. It seems plausible there may be some adaptation to the electrical properties of being at the surface vs ensconced in synthetic materials above it.

Granted there's no evidence for that as of yet, but there was a time when fiber in food was reasonably seen as just inefficient waste that couldn't be digested and so had no benefit, that's part of how we got Wonder Bread and the obesity epidemic.

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> as a species we've spent the vast majority of our existence sleeping on the literal ground

This isn't true, though. For the majority of human history, humans set up grass and leaf bedding atop campfire ash, using animal furs for additional insulation when needed. Ash and leaves are electrical insulators.

Yeah, because sleeping directly on the ground leaches heat from your body too fast, because of said lack of insulation. Sleeping too directly on the ground is also particularly dangerous in survival scenarios, doubly so if you are cold or wet. A common mistake when assembling a temporary shelter is to spend all your time on the “roof” but very little on the “floor”.

All those materials with the exception of animal furs are commonly found on or in the ground. Given the relative lack of multistory buildings throughout our history, that's basically just making the ground a few inches taller. The ground itself is highly varied as well, with various combinations of rock, dirt, sand, etc.

I was thinking more that in the developed world most people have much more separation from anything resembling the ground, both in terms of materials and physical distance that would substantially alter any electrical characteristics.

In the off chance I win the lottery I intend to fund serious robust studies of minor stuff like this. Would be the easiest placebo ever, just internally disconnect some of the mats.

The only possible way for this to do anything measurable if it somehow reduces the 50/60Hz AC hum impressed on your body. But either way with the wavelength of 60Hz in meat being like earth sized I dont think any significant electric fields will arise within two points of your body to do anything meaningful (as long as you stay AC coupled, if you DC couple to mains health effects are guaranteed).

To play devil's prosecutor, charge resides on the surface of an object, and the electric field inside is zero.

> It seems plausible there may be some adaptation to the electrical properties of being at the surface

This is like saying it’s plausible that wearing a bracelet with a small magnet in it will have health benefits. It’s pure woo. There’s no reason to believe this from a scientific angle. It’s perhaps not impossible but it is certainly not plausible.

> there was a time when fiber in food was reasonably seen as just inefficient waste

When was this?

No, it fits an existing pattern. Something commonplace in our natural environment that we adapted to over millions of years and exerted a non-obvious influence that wasn't scientifically verified until recently. Dietary fiber is but one example.

I'm not saying that's "evidence", or that the posted study is valid, but I'm also not aware of any robust studies demonstrating no difference from placebo. A lack of good data is neither positive nor negative.

As for dietary fiber, it wasn't broadly seen as useful for anything other than constipation until the 1970s when it was shown that increased fiber intake reduced colon cancer risk

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