Recent comments in /f/Showerthoughts

accnr3 t1_j25vsb5 wrote

Reply to People have quickly evolved the sense of a phone camera pointing at one. by qarasaq

This is very interesting. Because while I agree with the observation, evolution doesn't work that fast, or that way. Natural selection works by killing off less adaptive traits, and "not noticing a camera" is unlikely to kill you. Which leads me to suspect that the instinct, if it exists, builds on pre-existing instincts, like perhaps an instinct to detect eyes. But since camera lenses and eyes don't look similar, that leads me further to believe that it's not the look of the eye that draws attention, but the "meaning" of the eye.

But now we're delving into uncommon and even mystical territory. So probably it just isn't an evolved trait, but rather a learned trait. Possibly we could study it by comparing the instinct among those who get anxious in front of cameras and those who like it (the hypothesis obvious). Quite possibly no one would notice a hidden camera in a teddy-bears eye, or something like that.

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Toby_Forrester t1_j25vefc wrote

Reply to comment by Gamebird8 in The 1984 Dune film makes a lot more sense if The Spice is referred to as Space Cocaine instead. by neoengel

Yea there's no real world analogue, but still, oil would be better than cocaine, since it corresponds to the role of spice in trade and economics which fuel the politics. The spacing guild uses the psychedelic effects of spice to travel faster than light, making interstellar travel possible = oil makes efficient global travel possible.

And if you think of about a desert world occupied by foreign powers to get their hands on precious resource for trade, it corresponds to Arrakis and Middle East. The Fremen culture of Dune have notable Arabic roots.

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