poorsod
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2005
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/sc...r.html?_r=1&em
Explains why after joining SF, I have this urge to buy expensive SF approved stuff.Or suppose a young man, after listening to the specifications of the newest iPhone or hearing about a BMW's "Servotronic variable-ratio power steering," says to himself, "Those features sound awesome." Here's Dr. Miller's translation:
"Those features can be talked about in ways that will display my general intelligence to potential mates and friends, who will bow down before my godlike technopowers, which rival those of Iron Man himself."
Maybe I should stop trying to impress sartorial iFriends. It would be much kinder to my wallet."Evolution is good at getting us to avoid death, desperation and celibacy, but it's not that good at getting us to feel happy," he says, calling our desire to impress strangers a quirky evolutionary byproduct of a smaller social world.