2 thoughts on “What Module is This?”

  1. That behavior was selected for because that sound was the mating call of many (now extinct) animals. Humans evolved to mimic those mating calls as an aid to hunting.

    This explains why humans are so good at making that sound, why normal young men have such a nearly universal compulsion to make that sound and practice until they are proficient at it, why they compete with other males of their age cohort at making those sounds, and display their proficiency to attract females (who then select males based on that proficiency). The most proficient male would attract the prey, while the less proficient males in the hunting party would use hand weapons to kill it. The male making the sound was exposed to the least risk, and so proficiency at making those sounds was highly selected for.

    The reason the sound evolved as a mating call in the first place is because it signaled the consumption of a diet with excess nutrients, indicating an excellent time and place for mating. Those excess nutrients are converted to gases in the gut which organisms then used to produce the sounds that would signal the status both of themselves and of their territory. The conflict some human females have over males who make the sound is due to conflict between the signaling of a good territory and the signaling of a male who can mimic the signal of a good territory.

    The reason there are no extant animals that still use that sound as a mating call is because they were all hunted to extinction by humans.

    Perhaps with genetic engineering those extinct species can be recreated in abundance so we will be able to hear what the environment our ancestors evolved in actually sounded like.

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