Re: Shopping: Gender difference

From: Jacques Du Pasquier (jacques@dtext.com)
Date: Mon Mar 04 2002 - 12:03:43 MST


Anders Sandberg a écrit (4.3.2002/17:33) :
> On Mon, Mar 04, 2002 at 07:04:00AM -0800, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
> >
> > If the selective differentiation between the food sources
> > selected by human males and females in an evolutionary
> > context is a reasonable theory, it would not seem unreasonable
> > to extend this to the selection of the "best" of the available
> > resources. This might show up as a bias on the part of males
> > towards the preference for "fresh meat".
>
> May not an even simpler explanation be that males tend to behave a bit
> more according to well-learned behavior patterns (perhaps due to a
> naturally slightly higher resting arousal level affecting the
> noradrenergic systems?). This means that males would settle for a
> satisfactory solution, while females would sample more to get a better
> solution.
>
> I don't think this is a true explanation, but it sounds neat.

Many ideas come to mind. Maybe one day we can have some clearer ideas
about all of this. But then, when we understand it with some
precision, we will probably have started to move to something else, so
it won't matter very much anymore. Evolutionary psychology might be
obsolete before it matures.

In fact, think of all these written works about human nature, suddenly
obsoleted. But another way to look at it (quite natural to me, really)
is that "all these written works about human nature" are really not
very many and not very much, just a few stabs in the dark (and/or human
folklore exaltation) in the short transition phase between the
invention of writing and the blooming of computing.

To say the truth, I was getting bored with the "marvelous tradition of
writings about human nature" (all the little sex and status intrigues,
always the same, repeated over and over like they are so interesting)
even before I started to realize that human nature could possibly be
transcended in a relatively short time frame.

Now all the fun is back!

Jacques



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