You found a generic-looking white mushroom, congrats! But should you put it on your pizza or will it kill you stone dead? This photo is a good way to illustrate why you should talk to a human being instead of a computer when making life or death decisions.
A knowledgeable person would notice that the photo cuts off the bottom of the stem - this is important. If it has a club-like swelling (called the volva), you don't have a button mushroom.
A knowledgeable person would ask you to take a spore print or even just look at the gills. Deadly Amanitas have white spores, button mushrooms have brown ones.
These are two simple ways to protect yourself against mushroom poisoning that aren't necessarily foolproof - people poison themselves with Amanita phalloides a lot because they look like Volvariellas, which are closely related and have a lot of the same features, but if you adhere to the rule of not eating any white-spored mushrooms with swelling at the base you can go a long way to protect yourself. But the AI won't tell you that, because it's not built for context, it's built by people who are good at sounding like they know everything and is made in the image of its creators.
The more I learn about mushroom foraging, the less I want to ever do it again, even in my childhood home backyard. The meme is real, fuck off with that russian roulette
I know people who have foraged for years without having any problems. It's not Russian roulette if you take the time to learn from people who are knowledgeable about the area and smart about what you choose to eat. I wouldn't advocate it as a hobby unless you're genuinely interested in mycology (there are much easier ways to get food), but it won't kill you if you educate yourself.
Mate, my family picked mushrooms for three generations in the same rural area before a university proffesor told me "dude, you have been eating Chlorophyllum molybdites for years" and that's where I found the Lepiota meme and for fuck sakes if its true.
Sure we always boiled them a lot so none of us got sicl enough to suspect anything, but fuck
It's good to hook up w people in your area. A lot of species that are edible are really distinctive, and you can just stick to those. I won't fuck with white ones period, at least around here the amanitas are the only ones that will REALLY mess you up, others will give you a rough ride but they won't kill you.
The only rule my family had was avoid the black gilled ones with smooth silver top that grow on cow dung and stick to the ones with white gills and stem ring and with shaggy top. And always boil it.
The proffesor told me "as rule of thumb I wouldstick to the black ones"
Luckly we don't have Quercuses around
I love traditional foraging because of things like that, where would we be today if settlers didn't tell everyone "hey fuck your ages-developed methods, mushrooms are poison, lets all eat corn syrup and beef or we're going to hell."
The difference between a Pole and a German. One goes foraging every autumn and the other is afraid of even looking at a podgrzybek.
Idk what to say other than my original point was that relying on software that's incapable of reasoning is inferior to asking someone who would know what questions to ask before making the determination that a mushroom is safe and that I've known folks who got knowledgeable about an area and were able to forage successfully by focusing on only mushrooms that could be positively ID'd and taking steps to ensure they knew what they were eating.
It's not Russian roulette if you take the time to learn from people who are knowledgeable about the area and smart about what you choose to eat.
To me, personally, pretty sure this boils down to russian roulette
The AI are going to kill us all because they instinctive hate humans
The AI are going to kill us all because the capitalists put a Markov chain in charge of running a nuclear plantStory time!
A doctor friend was telling me about a patient they had in who ate 1 destroying angel. Otherwise healthy person, involved in sport, early 30s. The patient was rushed to hospital, needed a liver transplant. A liver had to be brought in by helicopter. Then the liver transplant didn't even work coz the toxicity was too strong, they needed a second liver. They got... I forget the exact term but it could be necrotising cellulittis where the skin dies/necrotises so fast you can almost see it before your eyes. Unfortunately I forget how the story ends, did the person live or not.
I hope they survived but two consecutives liver transplants in a short period with necrosis sprinkled on top seems hard to survive
Looks like Amanita bisporigera, colloquially known as the destroying angel.
You can actually nearly identify this mushroom without even looking at the picture, because every "oh no don't eat that mushroom" story is either a destroying angel or a death cap.
First time I'm ever seeing one like that, or even hearing about it. Very interesting how it can turn a liver to mush.
