4 ms·

Why are flowers beautiful? For the same reason rainbows, fireworks and a million other things are beautiful: they have symmetry, vivid colors, etc that we evolv

Why are flowers beautiful? For the same reason rainbows, fireworks and a million other things are beautiful: they have symmetry, vivid colors, etc that we evolved to find appealing for our own reasons, selection of mates mostly, healthy fresh food etc. Flowers are beautiful incidentally. That's my guess anyway.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago
That begs the question, how does it benefit humans in any way, to find rainbows etc beautiful?
- felipereigosa 4y ago
  It doesn't. My point is that finding people, healthy food, safe places and so on pleasant and beautiful benefits us. We use things like symmetry and color to decide if those things are beautiful. Flowers, rainbows etc just happen to have symmetry, color, simplicity, etc too so they get considered beautiful, almost by accident if you know what I mean. I believe in biology that concept is called a spandrel after the architectural term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology)
- potamic 4y ago
  I think there's an argument to be made about earthly things being beautiful in that they are signals of a habitable environments thriving ecosystems. What has somewhat mystified me however is that we find extra terrestrial things just as, if not more, beautiful. In all likelihood we should find them absolutely banal and repulsive. There is nothing interesting for life out there. And yet, I think I speak for everyone when I say, there is universal appeal in everything out there in the cosmos. From moons to planets, stars to galaxies, nebula, supernovas, blackholes, the blue planet whatever is out there, is all incredibly visually appealing to humans. We are drawn towards them like few things on earth can. There is absolutely no evolutionary reason for us to do so because life evolved without as much as a sight of outer space. It is a hostile, desolate environment and yet in the words of Buzz Aldrin when he first stepped on the moon, there is something magnificent about that desolation.
  - DrStormyDaniels 4y ago
    “ … I love all waste And solitary places; where we taste The pleasure of believing what we see Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be.”
  - r2_pilot 4y ago
    My dog has no interest in depictions of the moon or other celestial bodies as near as I can tell. Probably apes would be similar. I think we're more drawn to the (human) story around the exploration than the actual locations themselves. (Source: I watch a lot of space stuff around my dog. Come to think of it, he doesn't show much interest in landscapes around the world either.)
    - akolbe 4y ago
      One thing to bear in mind is that dogs devote much more brain power to their sense of smell than we do. To them, it's a fundamental part of how they perceive the world. https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-smell-is-tightly-linked-to-the-visual-parts-of-their-brain https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-smell-is-tightly-linked-to... ... researchers were surprised to see the sheer extent of the smell wiring within dog brains. Veterinary neuroimaging researcher Erica Andrews of Cornell University and colleagues have just mapped domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) olfactory brain pathways using diffusion MRI scans. This technique uses differences in the flow of molecules, such as water, to create a complex map of tissue structures. With the data the team built 3D maps of the dog brain's nerve tracts, and traced extensive white matter linking olfactory brain regions, revealing a huge, previously unknown, information highway between dogs' olfactory and visual systems. "We've never seen this connection between the nose and the occipital lobe, functionally the visual cortex in dogs, in any species," Cornell University neuroimaging researcher Pip Johnson explains. "It was really consistent. And size-wise, these tracts were really dramatic compared to what is described in the human olfactory system, more like what you'd see in our visual systems." This is likely what allows our clever canine friends to function extremely well, even without sight. For example, blind dogs can still play fetch. In that sense (!), I guess astronomy just isn't that interesting to them.
  - akolbe 4y ago
- mromanuk 4y ago
  Maybe we are hardcoded to like our environment, you will try to live where you like. Also if you like your environment, food, and other things, you like living. And that is good for life

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

That begs the question, how does it benefit humans in any way, to find rainbows etc beautiful?

felipereigosa 4y ago
It doesn't. My point is that finding people, healthy food, safe places and so on pleasant and beautiful benefits us. We use things like symmetry and color to decide if those things are beautiful. Flowers, rainbows etc just happen to have symmetry, color, simplicity, etc too so they get considered beautiful, almost by accident if you know what I mean. I believe in biology that concept is called a spandrel after the architectural term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology)
potamic 4y ago
I think there's an argument to be made about earthly things being beautiful in that they are signals of a habitable environments thriving ecosystems. What has somewhat mystified me however is that we find extra terrestrial things just as, if not more, beautiful. In all likelihood we should find them absolutely banal and repulsive. There is nothing interesting for life out there. And yet, I think I speak for everyone when I say, there is universal appeal in everything out there in the cosmos. From moons to planets, stars to galaxies, nebula, supernovas, blackholes, the blue planet whatever is out there, is all incredibly visually appealing to humans. We are drawn towards them like few things on earth can. There is absolutely no evolutionary reason for us to do so because life evolved without as much as a sight of outer space. It is a hostile, desolate environment and yet in the words of Buzz Aldrin when he first stepped on the moon, there is something magnificent about that desolation.
- DrStormyDaniels 4y ago
  “ … I love all waste And solitary places; where we taste The pleasure of believing what we see Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be.”
- r2_pilot 4y ago
  My dog has no interest in depictions of the moon or other celestial bodies as near as I can tell. Probably apes would be similar. I think we're more drawn to the (human) story around the exploration than the actual locations themselves. (Source: I watch a lot of space stuff around my dog. Come to think of it, he doesn't show much interest in landscapes around the world either.)
  - akolbe 4y ago
    One thing to bear in mind is that dogs devote much more brain power to their sense of smell than we do. To them, it's a fundamental part of how they perceive the world. https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-smell-is-tightly-linked-to-the-visual-parts-of-their-brain https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-smell-is-tightly-linked-to... ... researchers were surprised to see the sheer extent of the smell wiring within dog brains. Veterinary neuroimaging researcher Erica Andrews of Cornell University and colleagues have just mapped domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) olfactory brain pathways using diffusion MRI scans. This technique uses differences in the flow of molecules, such as water, to create a complex map of tissue structures. With the data the team built 3D maps of the dog brain's nerve tracts, and traced extensive white matter linking olfactory brain regions, revealing a huge, previously unknown, information highway between dogs' olfactory and visual systems. "We've never seen this connection between the nose and the occipital lobe, functionally the visual cortex in dogs, in any species," Cornell University neuroimaging researcher Pip Johnson explains. "It was really consistent. And size-wise, these tracts were really dramatic compared to what is described in the human olfactory system, more like what you'd see in our visual systems." This is likely what allows our clever canine friends to function extremely well, even without sight. For example, blind dogs can still play fetch. In that sense (!), I guess astronomy just isn't that interesting to them.
- akolbe 4y ago
mromanuk 4y ago
Maybe we are hardcoded to like our environment, you will try to live where you like. Also if you like your environment, food, and other things, you like living. And that is good for life