The Counterintuitive nature of Evolution

A very short talk at the TED Conference by the American philosopher Daniel Dennet:

In other words, we’re not fond of honey because it’s sweet, but it tastes sweet because our brain loves it. We don’t love our babies because they’re cute, but we find them cute because the contrary would have led us to extinction. Same reasonning for what we feel is sexy. And the best is undoubtedly about humour, which merely reflects how our brain is wired: what a satisfaction it is to us when we eventually understand the underlying mecanisms behind anything.  Laughing is our little treat. All this is called the “Hurley model” and will be described in a book to come by Matthew Hurley, Reginald Adams Jr and Dan Dennet.

Via Pharyngula