XPost: alt.fan.heinlein   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 08:19:16 -0500, The True Melissa wrote:   
      
   > Verily, in article <10mjpp7$17fp9$1@dont-email.me>, did ldo@nz.invalid   
   > deliver unto us this message:   
   >>   
   >> Also, I was contemplating the contrast between the Westermarck   
   >> Effect and Genetic Sexual Attraction; the one says that individuals   
   >> brought up together, whether related or not, tend not to be   
   >> sexually attracted to each other, yet the other says that   
   >> individuals who are very closely related (e.g. siblings) who are   
   >> brought up separately *do* often end up sexually attracted to each   
   >> other.   
   >>   
   >> Can you discern any coherent evolutionary pattern in any of that?   
   >>   
   > We are programmed to bond with people like ourselves --members of   
   > the same tribe, with the same assumptions and customs and habits --   
   > but also programmed to avoid members of the same immediate sib, to   
   > increase genetic mixing.   
   >   
   > Most of us don't ever meet long-lost relatives, but many of us marry   
   > people who resemble our parents.   
      
   I think this is what Roald Dahl called a “Just-So Story”. Or, in   
   scientific terms, you have plotted a curve that fits the known points   
   but nothing else.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)