[general_re]

One-off side-effects like that happen all the time. Written languages are one such effect, finding beauty in a sunset is quite likely another. The human brain didn't evolve in order to create computer networks - there weren't any before about forty years ago, after all, long after the brain reached its current state of development - and yet here we are, typing away. There's no particular reason that you should prefer ice cream to rice cakes - a million years ago, there were neither rice cakes nor ice cream - but you do, and there's a good general explanation for why you would be expected to choose ice cream over rice cakes.

You have a highly developed visual cortex, comparatively well developed three-dimensional color vision, a large brain that allows you to reason analogically about the past, present and future, and that gives you an awareness of the self and its relationship to the larger world, while also allowing you to manipulate that larger world to suit you. Why should we be surprised to find that such a complex being has complex tastes in its everyday life?

[ThinkPlease]

Late Supper placemarker.

[exmarine]

One-off side-effects like that happen all the time. Written languages are one such effect, finding beauty in a sunset is quite likely another.

Sounds like another unscientific "just so" story to me. Got any REAL scientific evidence to back back up your contention that the aesthetic sense is genetic?

There's no particular reason that you should prefer ice cream to rice cakes - a million years ago, there were neither rice cakes nor ice cream - but you do, and there's a good general explanation for why you would be expected to choose ice cream over rice cakes.

Comparing ice cream to aesthetic feelings? Where do you get this stuff?