[4:18 p.m.] : [2002-08-31]
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"You want to know my theory?" She turned toward him, all attention. "Five major transitions made us human. One: eyes in front, instead of on the sides of the face, giving us three-dimensional vision so we no longer had to rely on a sniffing wet nose for orientation. Two: stepping on flat open ground, imposed by the shrinking of the forests, and then standing up to detect the movements of preditors we could not outrun or outbite with our modest flat teath. It was essential that we keep our distance from them, which we couldn't do without standing up. Three: using out hands to help our poor teeth in catching our food and tearing it up. Four: loss of hair, so we could develope sweat glands and survive the leathal savanna sun. As a result, we aquired our naked skins. And finally...there was pleasure, which was much enhanced by our naked skins," he concluded, and enjoyed the look of astonishment on her face.
"Pleasure?" she repeated.
"Pleasure. More than any other animal, we have cells equipped to experience pleasure in our bodies, and connections for processing pleasure in our brains. I'm not forgetting that the enlargment of our brans allowed us to think abstractly, but I think that humanness is, above all, appreciation. That's how we separated from the rest of nature. That's how we finally became aware of ourselves."
She took a quick look at his messy apartment. "For someone so aware of pleasure," she murmured, "you don't seem to appreciate lifestyle very much."
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