Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The brain and the weather
I've noticed that sophisticated bloggers rarely speak about the weather. While I wanted this to be a post about the weather I decided I better camoflauge it as a philsophical obeservation of life.
Why are we so interested in weather? Is it hardwired into the brain?
There are a lot of automatic responses that humans and other creatures have. Rats for example have a set of wiring that makes them run from cats if they smell cat smell. A rat doesn't have to be taught what a cat smells like, and it doesn't have to learn to run from a cat. It gets all this stuff at birth. So do humans have a born in fascination with weather? It seems reasonable because of the direct connection between weather and survival. I know I get really excited when it snows. I like snow. It's snowing right now. <--- that's all I really wanted to say.
Why are we so interested in weather? Is it hardwired into the brain?
There are a lot of automatic responses that humans and other creatures have. Rats for example have a set of wiring that makes them run from cats if they smell cat smell. A rat doesn't have to be taught what a cat smells like, and it doesn't have to learn to run from a cat. It gets all this stuff at birth. So do humans have a born in fascination with weather? It seems reasonable because of the direct connection between weather and survival. I know I get really excited when it snows. I like snow. It's snowing right now. <--- that's all I really wanted to say.
