[ExI] I promised myself I wouldn't wade into it again

[spike]

>… On Behalf Of Will Steinberg
Subject: Re: [ExI] I promised myself I wouldn't wade into it again

 

>…I just don't get how you think Jill Stein is hot physically…

I think it is an evolutionary adaptation Will.  Keith Henson might comment on this since it might go to evolutionary psychology as well, but I don’t have sufficient understanding of the theory behind that notion.

I am guessing you are young.  If so, I don’t expect you would find Dr. Stein hot, for this fits with my understanding of group-level evolution.  Please anyone up to speed on individual vs group evolution, do feel free to jump in and rescue me from myself.  

Genes compete at an individual level as we know.  Competition for reproductive success is encoded (somehow) into our notions of attractiveness, no mystery there.  So we have a kind of universal attraction to shapely young women, ja?  (Please let me assume for this argument the POV of straight male, since that’s the only one I know from zeroth-hand experience.)  Shapely young women have visual cues that suggest health and reproductive capacity, so… very little mystery, genes vs genes, well understood is this.

OK, if we stop there, we have no good explanation for why older men find older women attractive, ja?  I know, they don’t always, of course.  But… the exceptions get unnecessary attention and are for that reason exaggerated.  What mechanism can we imagine that would cause older men to be attracted to women who are beyond reproductive age?

We can jump to all the things that complicate the picture: older women have more interesting things to talk about, have more experience to share and all that (we know, it’s true) but that isn’t really where I am going with this argument.  I am suggesting in most cases, older women are generally more attractive to most older men, even with that interesting-conversation-afterwards factor not taken into account.  My reasoning would go thus:

Suppose some unknown mechanism is encoded into our genes that cause older men to find post-fertile women attractive.  If so, then those societies where that factor is strong would work together better as a team, be more successful in raising its own offspring, since the old men would not compete with the young males for the fertile females.  Rather the post-fertility females would stay paired up with older males, thus creating opportunities to nurture the pre-fertile young, freeing up the fertile males to fight and hunt, etc, while not having the older stay-at-home males competing and producing offspring in their absence.  That would be an example of genes competing simultaneously at the individual level and the group level.

Does that kinda sorta work?  If so, those groups where the genes encode (somehow) older males to be attracted to post-fertility females creates a stronger more cohesive better-fed more fit to raise pre-fertility offspring society.  Ja?

That notion works for me, and explains why some post-fertility females appear drop-dead gorgeous to me.

>…OR intellectually, lol…

I don’t, lol.  I know Dr. Stein’s notions are goofy.  She’s still a knockout.  I feel no need to apologize, it’s in my genes.  Evolution put it there (somehow.)

>… You should go listen to her old music and try not to laugh…

OK so she’s not a musician either.

Easy solution: open two windows, one with Jill Stein on mute, open another window behind it with Sarah Brightman with the sound turned up, Jill’s visuals, Sarah’s voice, done.  Oh wait, never mind, Sarah is even more drop-dead gorgeous than Jill, and she is my age.  Oh what a stunner is that one, oh mercy.  

The magic age in which we fortunate ones are living allows us to mix and match voices, visuals, memesets, create the perfect fantasy companion.  Is it any wonder I am optimistic?

spike

 

 

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