St. Martyne (3648) on 11/27/2009 8:30 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Indra was here... wrote--] Perfume somewhat distorts this instinct; [/Q --end Indra was here... wrote--]

Well, that's the good part, isn't it? We've apparently have become so awesome to mess up with the DESIGN itself! Some women don't care for money, some men are gay, some people kill themselves for greater good and we invented perfume to mess up the smell.

—- (1623) on 11/27/2009 9:02 PM · Permalink · Report

I remember that I was thinking in the same patterns when I was in elementary school. My views were mostly met with rejection and incomprehension by my peers, and I felt incredibly superior (and lonely) because of it.

I later identified it as some kind of intellectually cloaked, materialistic pseudo-philosophy, which I employed to conceal my own emotional deficiencies.

But whatever makes you happy, dude =P

Unicorn Lynx (181775) on 11/28/2009 4:19 AM · Permalink · Report

No, Indra, I don't agree with these views. And remember I live in China, where the concept of a woman marrying for money is not only accepted, but publicly encouraged without a trace of shame.

Everything you said describes brainless individuals who became slaves to their instincts. Even if the majority of people are that way, it's not the way we are supposed to be. The proof is that some people are not that way - which means everybody can stop being that way.

Science cannot - and will never be able to - explain what we are. Science deals only with phenomena, not with the essence of things. It can explain in detail what laws govern the movement of atoms or the stars in their orbits; but it will never explain the mystery of human heart.

And most importantly - love does exist! You just have to believe in it.

Maw (832) on 11/28/2009 7:57 AM · Permalink · Report

Sure, it's easy to feel underwhelmed and depressed by the world at times. I know do. But when you ditch your oh-so-trendy "everything sucks!" attitude you realise the world really is a pretty cool place, and that your desire for something better is like a child's desire for a world made of ice-cream.

Humans are selfish creatures. Between your business failing and your neighbour's business failing, most of us would choose the second option in a heartbeat. But here's the interesting part: your business is less likely to fail if you enter a business agreement with your neighbour. Multiply this effect across billions of people in trillions of situations, and you have a world full of people who are selfish douchebags...AND YET HELP EACH OTHER. I find that pretty amazing.

It's the same weird contradiction with love. Put it in a test tube and it looks mundane. Just random swirls of hormones and a desire to propagate the human race. But that's like calling the Great Pyramid a pile of mud bricks. I am surrounded by married couples who would take bullets for each other. If you explained the boring scientific origins of the emotions they're experiencing, would they care?

Ever since I was 12 I've believed in a God for whom there is no scientific evidence. But man, scientific evidence is way overrated. There's no objective basis for justice, morality, and any other human concept, but the world thrives because people believe those concepts exists. Remember, reason and rationality is just a way of arriving at the truth, not the truth itself.

But who gives a crap. The world is really just a life support system for Mobygames.

mobygamer (92) on 11/28/2009 9:18 PM · Permalink · Report

1. About the survival, that is not necessarily true as well, some people commit suicide, because they do not want to withstand a certain situation or a future they depict.

2. Some men do not want to have kids... so anything and everything is a huge exaggeration, they might do it by mistake...

3. Some women do not even care about their offspring...

If you want to be intellectually simulated do the following:

Create a function that when given the number n(positive integer), will give you the nth prime number.

Slug Camargo (583) on 11/28/2009 11:08 PM · Permalink · Report

Hope you don't take this as a personal thing, but, why is it that all these brainy “what we call 'love' is just a chemical disorder that fades off within a few months” lectures always seem to come from bitter, undersexed people who seem to hold some kind of grudge against humanity?

Whatever the case, I gotta say I'm happy to belong to the inane, mouth-breathing, gullible crowd that insists in believing all that crap, despite the apparently overwhelming scientific evidence against it. Go team retard! =P

J. P. Gray (115) on 11/29/2009 6:50 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

The funny thing is, quite in keeping with Goedel, that we haven't even begun to explain ourselves. Yet every few decades a new smug system shows up that claims to explain it all. Phrenology goes to psychoanalysis goes to neurobiology goes to genetics. To be fair, these last two show an improvement in objective methods, but in terms of explaining everything they're a long way from useful.

Environment plays such a massive role--while genetics and biology do determine some of the tabula, it's still pretty damn rasa. Outside influences are huge, and as with any massively interdependent phenomenon with uncountable inputs, it's nigh-impossible to pick out which percepts make which difference to which individuals. Even if we were to reduce human behavior to some sort of 2+2=4 simplicity, it would be another brick wall we would bang our heads worthlessly against, just because it would please us. People -don't- behave at all in their best interests in terms of biological fitness; in the end, that's just another input. If a dog's biological imperatives can be so twisted by outside influence that he licks the master's hand that vivisects him, I'm unconvinced of any pure deterministic primacy outside of environmental influence.

So "human" is what your society makes it. People will look to their neighbors and are bound to their past impressions when any biological impulse takes them--the vehicle for that impulse will take a form determined by those factors.

beetle120 (2415) on 11/30/2009 4:28 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

My views are almost the same based on my scientific knowledge and observation I found:

1. Yes all living creatures are inherintly "selfish" but sometimes this can lead to selfless acts for selfish purposes (like helping the poor to make them selfs 'feel good'/gain respect).

2. Men are instinctively destined to have sex, that originally meant offspring but times have changed.

3. Women are instinctively destined to have raise the offspring to give them the best chance a life, so in the modern world that means money and items.

4. There has been a lot studies about smell of the (future) partner and it is overwhelming correct that smell plays a part in attraction but it is not the whole picture. Other instinctly things that we look for is the symmetrical shape of the partner and it is also known that females are more attracted to personalty and males for looks.

5. Love does exist, yes it is a chemical response, but all our emotions are but not about how it works it's about how it feels. The love chemical may run dry but the friendship may not and that in itself is love, unconditional love.

6. I have to disagree here, it is a mixture of a chemical reaction and intelligence. We have evolved beyond the instinct and made love and attraction something beyond all the other species on earth.