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The online player for BBC News are showing several requisite 'cute animal' videos that are unsurprisingly popular with viewers:

Newborn Gorilla

Literal Cat Burglar

White Lion Cubs

Newborn Pygmy Hippo

The baby gorilla is my personal favourite, due to it's likeness and mannerisms being similar to human babies.

Personally, i prefer the Hippo. That said, it is really cute

Zor

I wonder why it is that baby animals fill me with the desire to want to help them, make them and the mother more comfortable, whereas the sight of a human infant makes me say "ugh, shut the hell up" under my breath.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I wonder why it is that baby animals fill me with the desire to want to help them, make them and the mother more comfortable, whereas the sight of a human infant makes me say "ugh, shut the hell up" under my breath.

Human babies are pathetically helpless and also look deformed due to the requirement that the head grow faster than the rest of the body. Most mammal species can't get away with such immobile and predator-attracting young.

Yeah, I guess there's a reason why infant children are effective, if not widely used images to model horrible video game characters after.

I find most human infants to be a bit weird looking in their first few weeks, but from one month onwards up to twenty months I find most of them very cute and appealing. That baby gorilla looks almost as helpless and strange as a newborn human, with the flushed pinkish skin, giant eyes in comparaison to round squashed face, feeble limbs jerking about and high pitched whinging.

I think they're incredibly overrated. Even ugly babies can rouse cooing from everyone around them on a seemingly knee-jerk basis, which not only irritates me on principle alone but suggests to me that the people around me aren't very cautious or measured thinkers and are instead given to impulse.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:which not only irritates me on principle alone but suggests to me that the people around me aren't very cautious or measured thinkers and are instead given to impulse.

What the hell is wrong with cooing at babies? Is there some horrible danger involved in this, which your cool rationalism saves you from, while these poor foolish impulsive people expose themselves recklessly? Is it really true that babies are made out of plutonium and that only you realise this?

People act like that around babies for a reason; young infants are actively trying to recognise faces, imitate facial expressions and master basic phonemes and baby talk makes it easier for them. Even if it was pointless though, how the fuck is acting like that a sign of 'non-cautious' thinking?

Starglider wrote:

TithonusSyndrome wrote:which not only irritates me on principle alone but suggests to me that the people around me aren't very cautious or measured thinkers and are instead given to impulse.

What the hell is wrong with cooing at babies? Is there some horrible danger involved in this, which your cool rationalism saves you from, while these poor foolish impulsive people expose themselves recklessly? Is it really true that babies are made out of plutonium and that only you realise this?

People act like that around babies for a reason; young infants are actively trying to recognise faces, imitate facial expressions and master basic phonemes and baby talk makes it easier for them. Even if it was pointless though, how the fuck is acting like that a sign of 'non-cautious' thinking?

Back up. Back waaaaaaaaay up. Back to where you cut out the part where I said that "even ugly babies" get the same treatment from not just family members but literally anyone, especially those without Y chromosomes. There. Now, proceeding from there and NOT strawmanning me into making statements concerning any "danger" involved in babbling over an incoherent lump that does nothing but bawl and shit, we find a position closer to "man is that ever annoying" and less alike to "jesus christ the planet's going to hell in a handbasket."

TithonusSyndrome wrote:

Starglider wrote:

TithonusSyndrome wrote:which not only irritates me on principle alone but suggests to me that the people around me aren't very cautious or measured thinkers and are instead given to impulse.

What the hell is wrong with cooing at babies? Is there some horrible danger involved in this, which your cool rationalism saves you from, while these poor foolish impulsive people expose themselves recklessly? Is it really true that babies are made out of plutonium and that only you realise this?

People act like that around babies for a reason; young infants are actively trying to recognise faces, imitate facial expressions and master basic phonemes and baby talk makes it easier for them. Even if it was pointless though, how the fuck is acting like that a sign of 'non-cautious' thinking?

Back up. Back waaaaaaaaay up. Back to where you cut out the part where I said that "even ugly babies" get the same treatment from not just family members but literally anyone, especially those without Y chromosomes. There. Now, proceeding from there and NOT strawmanning me into making statements concerning any "danger" involved in babbling over an incoherent lump that does nothing but bawl and shit, we find a position closer to "man is that ever annoying" and less alike to "jesus christ the planet's going to hell in a handbasket."

The reason idiot, is because we have evolved specifically to want to coo at babies, fuss over them, and help them. If we did not find them so hideously appealing, no human infant would survive 3 days before mother exposed it on a rock FAR away from her, out of earshot of its pathetic screaming, or simply smothered/shook it to death.

We find cute things, to be things that share those juvenile traits. Big eyes, relatively squashed faces, etc, because that is the stimulus our brains keyed in to. Those that did not key into that "cuteness" killed their own offspring in frustration and thus did not reproduce.

Bear in mind, this is coming from the guy who HATES children from Birth, until the age of 8 or so, when you can train the kid to do your dastardly bidding (like getting the kid to duct tape the baby sitter to the couch while she naps, and then have a paper-mache' alien egg waiting for her when she wakes up.... Yes. I will be that kind of uncle)

You have a gaping snake in your avatar. Don't you just want to unhinge your jaws to swallow those edible babies whole?


White Lion Cubs are leik HUEG KITTENS! Awww!

Shroom Man 777 wrote:You have a gaping snake in your avatar. Don't you just want to unhinge your jaws to swallow those edible babies whole?


White Lion Cubs are leik HUEG KITTENS! Awww!

Yes. Yes I do. But I suppose I have to settle for advising abortions to people whom I know should not reproduce...

I'm puzzled why somebody would find human babies repulsive, when human babies (and baby mammals in general, especially infant dogs and apes) have adorable traits that encourage grown up humans to make a fuss over them and be protective of them, as nature intended.

Anyway here is another baby gorilla (this time a little girl), baby orangutans playing with tiger cubs, an older tiger and orangutan playing, and a big Newfoundland playing with a human baby.

Cuteness overload.

Eliphant calf playing with a blue ball.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I wonder why it is that baby animals fill me with the desire to want to help them, make them and the mother more comfortable, whereas the sight of a human infant makes me say "ugh, shut the hell up" under my breath.

Maybe you're a sociopath. You seem to be assuming that your personal tastes must be universal to all normal humans, when in fact such a widespread attitude would be harmful to the human race as Aly pointed out.

Darth Wong wrote:

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I wonder why it is that baby animals fill me with the desire to want to help them, make them and the mother more comfortable, whereas the sight of a human infant makes me say "ugh, shut the hell up" under my breath.

Maybe you're a sociopath. You seem to be assuming that your personal tastes must be universal to all normal humans, when in fact such a widespread attitude would be harmful to the human race as Aly pointed out.

Sociopaths lack empathy. He just lacks the cute responce towards human infants. I think it is more likely it is a pet peeve.

Samuel wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I wonder why it is that baby animals fill me with the desire to want to help them, make them and the mother more comfortable, whereas the sight of a human infant makes me say "ugh, shut the hell up" under my breath.

Maybe you're a sociopath. You seem to be assuming that your personal tastes must be universal to all normal humans, when in fact such a widespread attitude would be harmful to the human race as Aly pointed out.

Sociopaths lack empathy. He just lacks the cute responce towards human infants. I think it is more likely it is a pet peeve.

No, he said he does not feel any desire to help human babies. That's more than a pet peeve: he's declaring that he's a malfunctioning human who is lacking in a fundamental trait that was/is necessary for the survival of the species.

Well, I find babies a little creepy and not cute, but I can see why people consider them cute. I just think it's a bit too deep into adult human uncanny valley personally. I'd still help them, whatever that means, I guess, but they're freaky looking little things.

I guess I'm terrible at being a human being.

To be clear, I'm assuming that an infant bawling in public has it's mother on hand, and might even be bawling as a consequence of poor parenting. People who coo over that strike me as either totally weird, or perhaps they have "evolved" ear membranes to spare themselves excruciating discomfort in the pursuit of biodeterminism.

After all, how often do you or anyone else encounter abandoned infants who are in serious need of attention from someone other than it's presumably absent/deceased/etc mother? Not often enough for me to factor it into an off-the-cuff statement about the topic.

MRDOD wrote:Well, I find babies a little creepy and not cute, but I can see why people consider them cute. I just think it's a bit too deep into adult human uncanny valley personally.

I guess I'm terrible at being a human being.

You certainly would be, if you find yourself near a human baby and feel no impulse to help or protect it from harm.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:To be clear, I'm assuming that an infant bawling in public has it's mother on hand, and might even be bawling as a consequence of poor parenting. People who coo over that strike me as either totally weird, or perhaps they have "evolved" ear membranes to spare themselves excruciating discomfort in the pursuit of biodeterminism.

After all, how often do you or anyone else encounter abandoned infants who are in serious need of attention from someone other than it's presumably absent/deceased/etc mother? Not often enough for me to factor it into an off-the-cuff statement about the topic.

Ah, so when you say that you feel an impulse to help infant animals but not infant humans, you actually were referring specifically to infant humans who are screaming in public places and who are already receiving aid, and not to infants in any other situation? Or are you just backpedaling because it looks bad to say that you have no protective feelings toward babies?

Darth Wong wrote:

MRDOD wrote:Well, I find babies a little creepy and not cute, but I can see why people consider them cute. I just think it's a bit too deep into adult human uncanny valley personally.

I guess I'm terrible at being a human being.

You certainly would be, if you find yourself near a human baby and feel no impulse to help or protect it from harm.

Edited seconds after this post to reflect that I originally had no clue that was what 'disliking children a lot' meant. I just assumed we were talking about dislike of kids crying in theatres and kids looking like weird charicatures of what a normal human being looks like and only picked it up on a second readthrough.

I'd definitely help a baby just like anybody else if it were in danger- I'm not some sort of prick. Just a person who doesn't think babies are universally bundles of adorable.

Darth Wong wrote:Ah, so when you say that you feel an impulse to help infant animals but not infant humans, you actually were referring specifically to infant humans who are screaming in public places and who are already receiving aid, and not to infants in any other situation?

I wrote:After all, how often do you or anyone else encounter abandoned infants who are in serious need of attention from someone other than it's presumably absent/deceased/etc mother? Not often enough for me to factor it into an off-the-cuff statement about the topic.

Or are you just backpedaling because it looks bad to say that you have no protective feelings toward babies?

Occam's Razor says "no". I'm not sure how it would be practical for me to demonstrate otherwise on an internet forum, but rest assured that if I saw a baby that actually needed my help in the sort of dire way that this conversation is implying, I'd probably become pretty damn feral in it's defense.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Ah, so when you say that you feel an impulse to help infant animals but not infant humans, you actually were referring specifically to infant humans who are screaming in public places and who are already receiving aid, and not to infants in any other situation?

I wrote:After all, how often do you or anyone else encounter abandoned infants who are in serious need of attention from someone other than it's presumably absent/deceased/etc mother? Not often enough for me to factor it into an off-the-cuff statement about the topic.

Wow, you can quote your most recent post! How talented you are!

I run into babies who need attention on a fairly regular basis. The fact that the mother is present does not make me suddenly lose all sympathy for the child. Sometimes the mother is precisely why I feel sympathy for the child, because she's a shit mother and I have no authority to intervene on the child's behalf. Just how fucking sheltered are you that you never run into this situation?

Or are you just backpedaling because it looks bad to say that you have no protective feelings toward babies?

Occam's Razor says "no".

What the fuck does Occam's Razor have to do with this? Are you just tossing it out there because you think it will make you sound like you have some kind of philosophical logic-based argument going here?

Darth Wong wrote:

TithonusSyndrome wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Ah, so when you say that you feel an impulse to help infant animals but not infant humans, you actually were referring specifically to infant humans who are screaming in public places and who are already receiving aid, and not to infants in any other situation?

I wrote:After all, how often do you or anyone else encounter abandoned infants who are in serious need of attention from someone other than it's presumably absent/deceased/etc mother? Not often enough for me to factor it into an off-the-cuff statement about the topic.

Wow, you can quote yourself! How talented you are!

I'm tickled you noticed. Perhaps you'd care to also notice that I already addressed the fact that I wasn't accounting for children undergoing acute suffering without hope of a guardian on hand to do their job, or whatever you seem to think we must remain vigilant against?

I run into babies who need attention on a fairly regular basis. The fact that the mother is present does not make me suddenly lose all sympathy for the child. Sometimes the mother is precisely why I feel sympathy for the child, because she's a shit mother and I have no authority to intervene on the child's behalf. Just how fucking sheltered are you that you never run into this situation?

I don't know about "sheltered", but I currently live on a university campus and don't often have much cause to leave. The last time I actually saw an infant can be measured in months. So... congratulations for living a lifestyle that gives you plenty of opportunities to meet screeching babies?

Seeing cases where a screeching infant is likely given to screeching because of the incompetence of it's parent is a miserable thing to watch, not only for the infant but for the parent who is likely to maintain a cycle of mutual harm without any hope of intervention to break that cycle. But I can only let my heart bleed for so long, otherwise I'll quite literally have to leave on a stretcher with an IV drip, and I'll never be of any use to any mother or child or anyone at that rate... so I kind of have to be measured and realistic about my day-to-day reactions to human misery, as it's been my experience that I can let it get away with me quite easily.

What the fuck does Occam's Razor have to do with this? Are you just tossing it out there because you think it will make you sound like you have some kind of philosophical logic-based argument going here?

Alternately, consider the possibility that I raised it because there is no compelling reason to entertain the notion that I'm backpedaling, and without adequate cause to place the notion under serious consideration, it doesn't hold any water?