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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Cold blooded cuteness
Message-ID: <534@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Jul-85 13:29:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.534
Posted: Thu Jul 25 13:29:09 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 05:24:08 EDT
References: <2810@topaz.ARPA> <15880@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 22
Summary: Cute for their own species


In article <15880@watmath.UUCP> jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) writes:
>[...]
>
>Interesting theory about cuteness: we did it ourselves.
>
>This has nothing to do with the discussion of Ewoks being cute, but
>it's an interesting hypothesis.  Baby animals are "cute" primarily
>because humans find them cute.  Over millions of years of evolution,
>cuteness proved to be an important survival trait, because
>the meanest nastiest most successful predator of them all was
>reluctant to kill cute animals.  Of course there are good physical
>reasons why most mammalian young resemble human babies, but I think
>there's a strong "selection" factor there as well.


To consider the pointless diversion a bit more, I suspect that cuteness
is intended (in the evolutionary sense) to appeal to the adults of the
same species, exempting the young from competition and/or getting the
parents to feed them.  By and large only the young of species which feed
their young are cute.

By your theory, cockroaches should be almost intolerably cute. :-)