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Women have Evolutionary Strategies Too
February 27, 2006 08:43 AM
Mystery solved. Boy, was I dumb (my genes made me do it). The two young women (biologically near my age, but not chronlogically) both have boy friends. One lives with her boy friend, the other I don't know. Both were willing to do lunch, but curiously non-commital over dinner. Then one had her friend cancel lunch.
They were so taken by the flowers (why didn't their boyfriends do this?) and, dare I say, perhaps me, that in the gush of the moment they accepted my invitation and then got cold feet. They never directly told me why, perhaps because they were embarassed or still trying to keep me as a possible future or reserve male, just in case. That is fine with me so long as they call me after they have fully broken off the relationships. I am not going to get into any triangles for sure.
I was so dumb (my genes made me do it). I had reviewed the male's strategies in mate attraction and selection without making any allowances for the female's strategies and countermoves. So, here I was caught up in the female evolutionary strategy of having a mate but keeping an eye open for good genes. I don't think I misread any signals; they were acting a bit like the female sparrow who mates with the sparrow across the road when her mate is gone, broadening the genetic diversity of her offspring. Or, like all females who seem to have an eye open to the males around them, sorting and ranking them just in case (their genes make them do it).
Its all fair and its all fun and I feel a bit flattered and glad to have made them happy with the surprise flowers. I will continue to be dumb in this way. I like it and my genes like it. I think it is called being romantic.
For webdoyenne only...
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About Paul Chek and Flexibility
February 26, 2006 08:12 PM
Two weeks ago during my golf lesson. Ignore the form, just look at the high hands and full ninety degree shoulder turn. They illustrate the flexibility that I have achieved with what I discuss below.
Hone asked a question about Paul Chek. Simply put, he is among the best. A science-based approach to fitness. I have his book on golf biomechanics and have put some of it to use.
One point he makes in the book that I have put to good use is to use a balance ball or soft surface to train on. The balance ball is not the full ball, but the half ball with a platform under it.
The idea is to work out on an unsteady surface to train your balance. But, the more important point (which I think you may find only Chek among trainers points out clearly) is to trigger unsteady states wherein the dorsal horn must quickly activate a response. The dorsal horn is down near the end of the spine and it is responsible for the extremely quick corrections that do not have time to go up the spinal cord to the brain and back down in time to make the correction. This tends to over ride learned, disfunctional neural patterns that come from protecting the lower spine from past injuries or poor patterns.
It is not original to Chek, Stuart McGill, THE spine expert, discusses it in his fine book (I don't have it here in my office and I am not going across the breezeway into the house to find the title it right now). I rely on McGill more for my approach to spine fitness, but it was Chek who put me onto the point. The picture of my [before] golf swing is at the top of the post. Just note the flexibility, not the form (my hands are too far up and the wrists are turned up and over---no telling where the swing plane is from this position). I am so darn flexible I can turn too far (more than 90 degrees) that it is almost a disadvantage.
I owe some of this flexibility to Chek and more to McGill. Thanks to both, and my own research, my spine is flexible but not loose. Doing less stretching and more of other things that I will put in the book are the primary instruments for the really good spinal health I have achieved in the past year. Until then, I had a bit of Professor's Back (crossed pelvis and stiffness from too many hours at a desk). No more.
As to the golf biomechanics in Chek's book: he made a correct analysis of the classic PGA rotational swing, but the swing is technologically backward and terribly hard on the back and knees (witness Tiger's and Ernie's recent knee surgeries). The Mike Austin swing is biomechanically superior and uses the body's levers to good advantage. Several long drive competitors use it such as Jaacob Bowden.
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Women
February 25, 2006 08:12 PM
I think I was misunderstood in my last post. I was reviewing mating/attraction strategies and evolutionary psychology. Those BBC news clippings I posted were the interesting items. I was going over some major themes of the research just when those clippings hit me. Of course, I had been thinking about the matter a bit. Remember, in all the cases I reviewed I called our genes "stupid" meaning they make us act stupid for their advantage.
As to attracting women...All I have to do is be in the presence of women to attract them. I love women and they can sense it, I think. The problem is I don't tend to go where women go because of what I do: hike, motorcycle, play with grandchildren, practice softball, golf and so on. I like it that way. The gym is OK, but I don't often see anything that interests me.
Nonetheless, I found the last two comments so insightful and intelligent I just want to say thanks. And, I have to meet the webdoyenne.
I bet part of her disagreement with my point of view is that she is much more into aerobic activities (particularly with boy toys). She did say she works hard at fitness and appearance. I don't work hard at all on mine because I do so little aerobic work in the gym. Women do metabolize fat more effectively than men and have a comparative advantage in aerobic exercise over men. And, I would expect that to show in a woman's preference for and perhaps even pyschological and physiological need to do more aerobic work than a male.
So, bouyed by those comments (but more by myself) I will go on stating things just as they happen. So just to rub it in, let me tell you something that will really get to some of you.
I was in Costco recently. I dropped my license at the door checking in. Later a manager found me out on the floor and returned it. I said how did you ever recognize me. She said it was easy to spot such an attractive man. Not so hot, given that most of the license pictures they find have double and triple chins. Then a women and her daughter just sort of stared at me. I had come from the gym and had a Heat long sleeved shirt on. Sort of tight, but the kind of high tech stuff I like to work out in. The daughter did stare and seemed to fixate on my arm, letting her gaze follow me for some distance. I smiled at her and just kept moving. As if that wasn't enough, I got to the checkout stand and the young woman boxing reached over and held my ring finger and said something to the effect of "you're not married?" I just smiled and said no.
There is lots more. I talk to girls in line at Starbucks and they just giggle. Why do they do that? But, that is enough (for now).
The point is simple, when you are a lean, fit male, gracefully symmetrical, with good posture, clean and well-dressed, smiling and well-mannered, girls and women will like you. Not all that hard in a world of unfit, unkept, unmannered, uneducated males with big bellies and double/triple chins.
Isn't the point really that the American male is a pretty sorry species these days.
As to the Range Rover and all that. I buy that stuff for me. My daughter told me that it is "just me" when she saw it. Actually, the Rover attracts construction workers more than females. Not what a real player might want.
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (4)
Comments
Is it just me, or do you think some of the recent comments are a bit off the mark in terms of tone?
I don't want any of this to be about me. It is about science and fun. I think the blog has helped me work through some of my grief and move on, but I really don't feel like exposing myself to comments that are personal.
Attack and argue with my ideas for sure. But keep it there and not on me please.
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Baseball: Steroids and Home Runs
February 24, 2006 09:03 AM
The season is here again. Isn't it great.
Bonds looks no less muscular than in years past. I'll bet he is (and perhaps always was) free of steroids. No matter. He seems to have more dignity and grace now. Good people who face tough times do grow.
I have posted my new version of my home run paper. I changed the title to reflect a bit more focus on this issue, though to me the generalization of the laws of elite human performance is the real merit of the paper. I hope it strikes a small blow for freedom by knocking down the Senatorial wind bags on their claims about steroids and home runs. I agreed to give the paper at the APEE meetings in April and am likely to accept another invitation to speak on aging at what looks to be a collection of some of the world's top authorities on the subject. [Or, am I just taking one of my readers' suggestions to go to forums where I can display my genes?]
I also sent the revised home run paper off to a journal. I guess I am slowly coming back to action. Working out a bit more often, but not quite so hard as I would like. Got to not try to do too much right now. Spent some time with a great instructor, Dan Shauger, learning the Mike Austin golf swing. Not playing right now, just hitting balls and loving it.
I am starting to think about the book again. In a way, I have to do it because Bonnie wanted me to. She thought it would be a waste not to share what I have learned and that the blog was not an adequate medium for that. OK, I think that is right.
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Evolutionary Value of Religion
February 23, 2006 09:35 PM
Michael Schermer has a nice review of Daniel Dennet's new book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. I must read it. Find it at the Skeptic Society web site at Breaking the Spell.
I don't buy the belief in belief theory. Religion would seem to have been no more than primitive physics initially, and even now to many. The prime mover theory. It may have gone beyond that when organized religion exploited Schermer's point 4 (encouragement of within-group amity and between-group enmity. That is what we see today in the enmity that some radical religious groups display to others. And it is what we see when dictators co-opt religion to rule people.
The important thing is to analyze religion scientifically, a point Dennett seems to make well as I read the review. It does seem that people look for an agent as a cause of events. I think this is because they do not understand probability, nor do they see that complex processes create ordered events without agency. Things just happen to look orderly on certain scales of observation because of lower levels of unobservable structure, dynamics, and chance.
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Symmetry and Strategy
Now that I have most of my grief behind me, I am giving a bit of thought to romance, lust, and how I shall go about finding another woman. I love women and what they bring to life and will definitely find another.
So, how do I go about my search?
I could exploit my symmetry and search in the gym. Women do look at me in the gym, some even stare ("Are you Mr. Olympia?" one asked me). But, Utah women that I see in the rather high end gym I go to (I don't like them, but traffic and the bankruptcy of my old gym sent me there) are metabolic basket cases. You can see their insulin resistance in their androgenous shape (the hour glass shape is long gone, buried by cookies, candy, cokes, and pasta and french fries) and puffy faces. I may see an attractive woman once a month in the gym. Maybe I should go at a different time of the day.
I can remember three women from the past who were exceptionally attractive in one of the many gyms I have used over the years. All were a bit older, 40-ish, and somewhat muscular, but with a real hour glass shape. They moved gracefully. I remember thinking, We could have such athletic, beautiful children. Like the grandchildren I now have. I should be satisfied and I am, but my genes are still telling me what is beautiful and healthy.
So, my symmetry is a plus as this interesting article shows Asymmetrical men 'are a turn-off
I am a high-status, dominant male (not dominating) and that is a turn-on to women as this article shows: Dominant men 'smell attractive'. Funny, a woman the other day told me I smelled "so good". Maybe she was ovulating. Hidden oestrous is one of the many fascinating features of human sexuality. Maybe the cologne Audley's son is using is intended to exploit this response. It doesn't work, as another BBC News link shows: Sniffing out potential partners.
I use very little cologne and of a perfectly ordinary, inexpensive, kind. Bonnie bought it for me and I don't even know what it is. Stetson I think.
I can show dominance on the softball field with the old men I play with. But, so what, all the women spectating are old and married at the games. There was a younger umpire that I found attractive and who seemed to feel the same way, but I was married then.
I could use my resources to signal to women. I drive a gorgeous vehicle, dress well, and (as long-time readers may recall) have a foundness for fine watches. I like them because I like them, but that may be my stupid genes again. [Speaking of stupid genes, they are OJ's ultimate defense; "My genes made me do it." Male sexual rage is, alas, an evolutionary strategy.] Thanks to Bonnie, I have a big, beautiful home with a fabulous view on almost an acre overlooking a golf course, with Zion in the distance. Between my moves (academics have to move to take new jobs) and Bonnie's taste for homes and talent for interior design, we made nice gains in home values over the years.
So, now here I am, rattling around in a big, empty house...
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The Imperative of Movement
February 20, 2006 07:55 PM
My wife's last days provided many profound truths for me. Many I had not considered or experienced. One stands out more than most. It is that when the threat of death is near, humans (and likely other species) start to move. Sleep becomes a transitory state between states of movement and responses to perceived threats. When near death, humans do not sleep at night and tend to sleep during the day. The workers at the hospice confirmed this perception. They find it difficult to regulate sleep in the customary pattern of night sleep and day time activity. Instead, they find that the pattern is reversed; night time movement and a sense of threat, with day time sleep. It was this pattern of behavior in Bonnie that destroyed my sleep. It was worth it to keep her safe, but I have wondered about the pattern.
It is not hard to see from an evolutionary perspective. The daytime was the human evolutionary niche. Our sweat glands, upright stature, hairless bodies and sophisticated thermoregulatory systems made the peak temperature, day time hours our niche. No other animal, at least among predators, was able to tolerate the temperatures humans could endure and work at. We ruled the day at peak temperatures in a way no other animal could.
But, we were at risk in the night when lower temperatures gave predators their time to hunt and kill. That is why humans sleep during the night---to be less of a target to predators. The night was the most dangerous time for ancestors and we show it in our behaviors even now. This is the time when we experience our deepest fears. We seldom experience these fears in the depth they are felt during the night, the time of our most profound risk.
This pattern is especially prominent in children. But, alas, it was also evident in my dear wife's fears near the end of her life, when her reasoning had been damaged by the vasculitis. As shall be the fate of all of us: when near death, neural programs revert to their evolutionary default settings.
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Bonnie's Bravery
February 13, 2006 07:18 PM
I hope I will be as brave and gracious as Bonnie was in death.
She smiled to the very end. That lovely smile.
Even her doctors commented on the way she smiled and did what was needed without complaint. They always saw me in the background, watching her and them. They all had to show me what they thought and why and offer explanations of how this was right for her at this time. They all came to know that they were dealing with a scientist and a loving husband who wanted to make the right choices for his wife.
For the most part, they did this, but many failed to include in their prescriptions the effect on the quality of life. One doctor shines through it all. He is Abinash Roy, the kidney specialist here and a great humanist. He was one of the leaders in kidney transplants at Brown Univeristy, when they had not been done before. And he has a profound knowledge that, even as I challenged and questioned it, was correct. A great doctor, as all doctors should be.
He said, "I felt the depth of your involvement in her care." Something others, at the hospice and in the hospital have said. I was involved. Profoundly so. But, I knew from the beginning that the diagnosis of Pauci Immune Glomerulonephritis was a death sentence. It was simply an organ-specific diagnosis of a broader autoimmune disease known as Systemic Vaculitis, a deadly killer.
We had to balance the days of life against the quality. Given her other health issues, we chose quality. And, she never complained. She had so much dignity and such a beautiful smile to the end that I could never do better. She is my lost love and my model for how my life will end in dignity and good grace and humor. And a great model for her children and grandchildren.
Because of Bonnie's bravery and dignity in death I can smile and be proud even in my sadness. She loved my humor and everyone who cared for her laughed at my comments as we shared her life and impending death at how I made light of life and death. Bonnie laughed more than anyone and I cherish that.
She got the last laugh on my mother by outliving her by a day, though she would never think of it that way.
And as for me, I am just the most eligible widower in Southern Utah thanks to Evolutionary Fitness and good investments. I am going to have to beat off the women when this gets out. Keep it quiet will you.
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Thanks
February 7, 2006 09:11 AM
I have gotten so many kind emails and cards, including Tom and Jerry cartoons, that I wanted to say thanks.
I am doing fine, with not a hint of regret or feeling of having been cheated. There is nothing fair about remorseless biology or in the way pathogens take life. I have had plenty to be sad about and much to be happy for.
Bonnie's Vogue drawing will be done in bas relief by a superb local sculptor, who by the strangest coincidence is doing work for the University of Irvine, where I used to work.
Her likeness will go on a wall of the home we had begun planning for Moab. Her ashes will go there too, as well as mine when my time comes.
I do not fear loneliness or being alone. I am surrounded by grandchildren and have much to do.
The picture above is of my new Range Rover, likely the last car I will own, parked at the edge of the Moab lot up on Bridger Jack Mesa. Bonnie and I had planned to pick it up together when it arrived, but that was not to be. It was hard to find because it is a rare, supercharged, model (400hp).
Last, here is the view from the spot where the house will be built. I do wish Bonnie could share it. We picked the spot out just before she died.
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