fugues, rainbows, stars, sunsets, and iridescent beetles
Yes, these are hard. Here’s my speculation:
Rainbows ⇒ sun and water ⇒ plants to eat ⇒ prey animals.
Stars and sunsets ⇒ good weather tomorrow ⇒ easier survival (and reproduction).
No idea about the beetles yet.
difficult to catch gazelles, the ugliness of easy to catch pigs, and the ugliness of tasty and nutritious bottom-dwelling fish.
These are easy.
All these things possess attributes desirable for a human. “I wish I could run as fast as a gazelle, or be as dangerous to my enemies as a tiger, or safely explore the land like an eagle”.
Pigs are prey, and this is not a desirable condition for a human. Plus, pigs are fat and smell bad. One can think, would I want to be fat, stinky and easy to catch?
Dogs are subordinate to us, wolves are not, therefore wolves possess more desirable attributes (they are not somebody’s slaves or sidekicks), which is why we see much more wolves than dogs on t-shirts and car stickers.
Wolves are pack predators, hyenas are too, but the latter eat mostly sick and dead animals—no human would want such a food. Wolves again are ‘more beautiful’ to us.
As for the bottom-dwelling fish, I personally find them strangely attractive and fascinating. Their ugliness might have to do with the fact that their ‘facial features’ can be easily projected to humans: huge mouth, widely spaced eyes, bald skin—not very attractive by human standards.
All this probably related to mirror neurons. We think pigs are ugly, but we don’t usually think that rocks are ugly.
fugues, rainbows, stars, sunsets, and iridescent beetles
Yes, these are hard. Here’s my speculation:
Rainbows ⇒ sun and water ⇒ plants to eat ⇒ prey animals. Stars and sunsets ⇒ good weather tomorrow ⇒ easier survival (and reproduction). No idea about the beetles yet.
difficult to catch gazelles, the ugliness of easy to catch pigs, and the ugliness of tasty and nutritious bottom-dwelling fish.
These are easy.
All these things possess attributes desirable for a human. “I wish I could run as fast as a gazelle, or be as dangerous to my enemies as a tiger, or safely explore the land like an eagle”.
Pigs are prey, and this is not a desirable condition for a human. Plus, pigs are fat and smell bad. One can think, would I want to be fat, stinky and easy to catch?
Dogs are subordinate to us, wolves are not, therefore wolves possess more desirable attributes (they are not somebody’s slaves or sidekicks), which is why we see much more wolves than dogs on t-shirts and car stickers.
Wolves are pack predators, hyenas are too, but the latter eat mostly sick and dead animals—no human would want such a food. Wolves again are ‘more beautiful’ to us.
As for the bottom-dwelling fish, I personally find them strangely attractive and fascinating. Their ugliness might have to do with the fact that their ‘facial features’ can be easily projected to humans: huge mouth, widely spaced eyes, bald skin—not very attractive by human standards.
All this probably related to mirror neurons. We think pigs are ugly, but we don’t usually think that rocks are ugly.