Skip to main content

Hardware and Software

Hardware is visible. Software is not. Probably that explains the appeal of hardware to the detriment of software. I mean look at the rough human counterpart of it.

We go for looks to get our first impression. I mean, in our society we look at the faces (and, well, elsewhere too) of folks ... passersby. We might talk to only those few that we know or have business with. And our visual sense is quite acute too.

And males prefer females with good-looking faces. Nice symmetric and soft features and whatever else it's that tells our brain that a face is beautiful. And then the definition of beauty varies from culture to culture ... at least to a certain extent.



In places like India, there's a general agreement that white or fair skin is more beautiful. I think that's a global standard so to speak. I don't know that Caucasians in America or Europe are dying for black, African beauties.

Perhaps the changes as our species has traveled from the African continent to elsewhere in the world have been quite fundamental in terms of the bones comprising our face which determines how we look.

Then the eye shapes differ too. Chinese people have smaller eyes and smaller facial features generally, I think.

Anyway, males easily prefer a beautiful female who might have poor intelligence to a female with not-so-good looks for great intelligence.

And that applies to females too. Females prefer handsome males with symmetric features and a muscular build. Clearly, it's a sign of good health and good genes if you're built like Arnold Schwarzneggar and you're likely to be a good hunter too and that's clearly an advantage in the African savanna where we live.

So we see the pretty females populating all the public outlets: the front office desks, the TV anchor desks, modeling everything from cold cream and sun-screen lotions to soaps and dresses. Movie stardom is the pinnacle of this sort of life.

The not-so-good looking females I suppose probably opt for careers that require more of studying and hard work and a long gestation period before reaching success — careers such as becoming a doctor or an engineer or lawyer or other kind of professional.

Similarly, all the good looking males seem to have fun while they're young and the bad looking ones get rich after they get old. The rare and lucky folks who happen to be both handsome and smart are a rare breed indeed.

The bad looking ones toil in the dungeons to become scientists or researchers or something. Our society is such that we give all our attention to people who're achievers in really shallow professions: recall the pedestal on which we put movie stars or cricketers and such people.

Scientists and medical researchers are the ones who make a real contribution to society and help make our lives better in a true sense but we neglect them of course.

At the end of it all though, it would appear to be a game where each sex is trying to impress the opposite sex. At least, males try to impress the females with their skills and such. The more females, the better. Females ... I don't know.

Popular posts from this blog

Longforms and 'Best of 2017' Lists and Favorite Books by Ashutosh Joglekar and Scott Aaronson

Ashutosh Joglekar's books list. http://wavefunction.fieldofscience.com/2018/03/30-favorite-books.html Scott Aaronson' list https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3679 https://www.wired.com/story/most-read-wired-magazine-stories-2017/ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/the-best-books-we-read-in-2017/548912/ https://longreads.com/2017/12/21/longreads-best-of-2017-essays/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/21/world/asia/how-the-rohingya-escaped.html https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-journalists-covered-rise-mussolini-hitler-180961407/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/artificial-intelligence-future-scenarios-180968403/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/01/20/citizen-kay https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/where-we-are-hunt-cancer-vaccine-180968391/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/dna-based-attack-against-cancer-may-work-180968407/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/22/dona...

Articles Collection August

Hope to get around to reading or finishing these articles. Some day. When David Remnick writes about Russia, you gotta read. All of David Remnick's articles in the New Yorker. All of Ken Auletta's articles in the New Yorker. Profile of cricket boss N. Srinivasan in The Caravan. Excerpt from Lena Dunham's book. Yes, I for one think it's wrong to teach children to believe in God. It's child abuse. Plain and simple. Philip Seymour Hoffman's last days . Where do children's earliest memories go? Does humanity's future lie among the stars or is our fate extinction ? Chapter 1 of Sam Harris' Waking Up . Finding the words , an elegy. Eight days, the battle to save the American financial system . Love stories from the New Yorker. Profiles from the New Yorker. 25 articles from the New Yorker chosen by Longreads . The Biden agenda from the New Yorker. Kim Philby by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. Miles O'Brien's PBS story about the ...

Ayn Rand Was Right

Do we exalt the John Galts and Howard Roarks among us or despise them? Do we admire the ultimate, self-centered and selfish capitalists or the selfless, self-sacrificing altruists? Oh sure there are the Martin Luther King, Jr.s and Mahatma Gandhis and Nelson Mandelas and Aung Sun Suu Kyis we like to point to as icons and worthy role models for our children. But look deeply and we find that we are obsessed with the wealthy. And who are the wealthy? Why do we let the Robert Rubins, Sandy Weills, Jakc Welchs, Jamie Dimons and their Wall St. brethren keep their millions? Because we consider that right and their right. Let alone the hedge fund people whose entire purpose is to become billionaires. How many people explicitly make life choices that will lead to a life of service -> not be a charlatan like Mother Teresa but just helping the underprivileged without trying to 'achieve' greatness by so doing. So Lance Armstrong and Greg Mortensen and the Evangelical Christ...