[ExI] how did high heels happen?

[Stefano Vaj]

On 30 December 2011 22:08, The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> But this is not due to some chauvanist agenda anymore than a peacock's
> tail feathers are. Instead it is an example of the evolutionary handicap
> principle.
>

The traditional, say, Lorenz's, peacock's feathers explanation is that it
is simply an evolutionary vicious circle (if I am a peacock female liking
short feathers, I am less likely to get chicks from my mate able to seduce
a lot of other females, so the success of my genes at replication is
decreased).

But I suspect that an evolutionary handicap principle might in fact exist.
See for instance the exhibition of obviously uselessly dangerous behaviour
("Look, possible sexual mate, if I am ethologically inclined to embark in
such futile daring, and yet my genes are still around, they must otherwise
be really, really good").

This, of course, need not go away in a posthuman-but-still-biological
context. Things would of course be made more complicate by the fact at each
generation our genetic endowment can be modified. Yet, the direction in
which it is will in turn depend on one's "nature" and preferences,
something which is in turn at least to some extent programmed by our
existing genetic endowment.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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