tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11687417.post2223694946573932998..comments2023-09-14T16:06:48.510+02:00Comments on Biopolitical: Evolution and beautyBiopoliticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16045874185251304861noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11687417.post-8532512140824982152006-09-18T02:22:00.000+02:002006-09-18T02:22:00.000+02:00"...a decentralized decision-making mechanism. It ..."...a decentralized decision-making mechanism. It is based on a massively trial-and-error process. It is a continuous, real-time test of a huge variety of alternatives."<br /><br />...nice analogy for a regulated free market.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11687417.post-2548042687454103732006-09-15T01:05:00.000+02:002006-09-15T01:05:00.000+02:00Interesting. Above all, we are extremely sensitive...Interesting. Above all, we are extremely sensitive to the beauty of human faces and other human traits, and of human creations. Perhaps it was adaptive to get aroused by human features that signal reproductive quality (good genes, good health, youth, resource provisioninig, etc.). And maybe this intense appreciation of people's features and creations spills over to other objects.<br /><br />As Humphrey notes, we seem to get aroused by features that look difficult to produce by chance. Thus we find beauty in symmetry, repetition, rhythm, or harmony. It is easy to produce an ugly face - most facial configurations that we can think of are ugly. A beautiful face is strikingly nonrandom and difficult to produce. Maybe we extend this sort of appreciation to other objects that are remarkably nonrandom and so "difficult to produce." Flowers and butterfly wings are cases in point. They both feature symmetry, repetitive patterns, geometric cleanliness, and unusual color configurations. They strongly depart from randomness. The same reasoning explains why many people reject "art" or "music" that looks haphazard or "easy to produce."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11687417.post-81016148624148221752006-09-14T22:23:00.000+02:002006-09-14T22:23:00.000+02:00I posted this cvomment yesterday, but it didn't sh...I posted this cvomment yesterday, but it didn't show up. Never mind, it is worth posting again.<br /><br />OK, so we recognize some things as beautiful, but have you stopped to consider why we find some things beautfiul. What -- if any -- selective advantage does an aesthetic sense confer?<br /><br />I don't know, but I highly recommend a paper that I think has been neglected, <a href="http://cogprints.org/1771/">The Illusion of Beauty</a> by Nicholas Humphrey, a thinker I also think has been neglected.Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04639265958695262241noreply@blogger.com