Chapter 23 Heaven in the dashboard lights

Sometimes Darwin is in the dashboard of your car. It was late when I came home from a lecture on human behaviour.The rain was beating on the glass of the car, and the radio in the car was my only company at this time.The radio host said that a song related to heaven would be broadcast next, which turned out to be the song "Heaven in the Dashboard Lights".Nostalgia hits me, isn't it that 70's pop song?There's an ugly guy and a pretty girl in it.There is a line in the song that says "we who are under seventeen years old face each other naked".I sat in the car as relaxed as possible, letting the notes of those early years linger around me, regardless of the rain outside.

Mitt Roff's shrill voice rings in my ears: "In the dark of night, so cold and so lonely, but I can still see that heaven in the dashboard lights." That heaven aside, it's a lot like is singing about my car.However, when Rove's seductive voice was quickly interrupted by Alan Fry's penetrating voice, my thoughts disappeared in an instant.Just listen to Foley sing: "I need to know now! Before we get on with it! Do you love me? Will you always love me? Do you need me?" The poor fellow never expected this to happen. ! "Will you love me forever?" He was not yet seventeen, and he still wanted to control her.I can imagine their bodies entwined in the front seat of the car, their heads flushed red, their clothes strewn everywhere, and the sound of panting urgently... As a result, there suddenly appeared an eternity. Promise, I said forever!The guy had to put his erection on hold, his eyes burning with confusion in Fry's questioning eyes.Do you have to answer now?

"Let me sleep and think about it, baby, let me sleep and think about it, think about it. I'll give you the answer in the morning." At this time, a big truck rang hard Horn, reminding me to drive back to the original lane.But don't be like me, turning the steering wheel to the rhythm of the music.But it's so late, what's that truck still on the road?In any case, Ellen Foley disagreed and was about to make that permanent commitment from Rove, before his sperm had irreversible results for her.I drove a few kilometers, and the two of them were still entangled back and forth between "Will you love me forever" and "I'll give you the answer the next morning", until Rove's unquenchable desire Winning—his erection "can't hold on any longer" before swearing, "I swear I'll love you forever!" Poor guy, now he'll have to "pray that forever will pass so I can leave you ".

This pop song from the golden age distracted me from driving, which was no surprise, as it was not only a nostalgic gift from the radio station, but also a perfect example of my speech tonight.It is precisely this reason that prompted me to write this story.This chorus by Mitt Rove and Alan Fry summarizes the different reproductive strategies that evolution has given to men and women.The fact that our great-great-great-grandfathers reproduced differently than our great-great-great-grandmothers may throw cold water on many readers, but evolution is not concerned with that, but with the size and number of sex cells.Then let's take a look.

Men can continuously produce a large number of sperm cells, and the consumption of one ejaculation can reach hundreds of millions, but a new batch of sperm will be produced accordingly.For decades, even when men are too old to aim for the bull's-eye, sperm continues to be produced.Women are different, the number of eggs produced each month is about one, and that's it until menopause. A woman only has a few hundred egg cells in her lifetime.This difference between men and women is like winning the lottery. Men win cheap lottery tickets, while women win big prizes.Just imagine that the child born to a woman after pregnancy cannot survive, or is in poor health and often gets sick. What does the man lose?It's just some sperm whose reserves are constantly being renewed, and the energy that's wasted. Men don't care about these two points.In theory, he can create another opportunity without loss.A woman, on the other hand, is unable to reproduce for several years if the sperm that conceives her carries genes that do not produce a viable child.First of all, she was pregnant in October, and then she had to raise the child for several years.The thing to think about here is that this is still the case after evolution, and our distant ancestors didn't know what a milk bottle was.During this time, women are no longer fertile, so their chances of becoming our ancestors are greatly reduced.In other words, a woman's egg cells are particularly expensive.Throughout human evolution, women have tried to "sell" their eggs for exorbitant prices.That said, they are very picky, starting by estimating the quality of the sperm to see if they have good genes, some of which can be seen in the man who carries them.is he healthyHandsome?Are you strong?Are you smart?If this is true, the chances of the child inheriting it are relatively high.That's why women don't want to have sex so quickly, and it's the same with other animals.The courtship period of many animals is very long, in order to give women the opportunity to examine the man in front of them carefully.

And that's not all.As an animal, human beings, their cubs—that is, children—are born very early, which has something to do with our brains, that is, our big heads.In order not to increase the difficulty of childbirth, compared with many mammals, humans came to the world early, making babies need more care. Humans are actually very fragile.Every help a mother receives, such as a helping hand from her partner, is warmly welcomed and increases the child's chances of survival. Moreover, this kind of help is also very important in the child's subsequent growth.Children not only need to be protected, but also have to be fed, educated, etc. There were no police, hospitals, and schools 100,000 years ago.For all these reasons, our great-great-great-grandmothers donated their expensive eggs only when they were sure they could get help (forever) from a partner.Sometimes, it lasts forever for a few years, and it ends when the child survives, but it's definitely not a short-lived adventure.Of course, our great-great-great-grandmothers must have taken those risks and benefited from them, but that's another story, not relevant to the present one.

It must have been good for our great-great-great-grandfathers to have a long-term sexual relationship with their great-great-great-grandmothers, so that their children's survival and education were assured.Still, it would be great if a man could release his sperm outside of this "forever" relationship.Because of the woman he was pregnant with, it increased his chances of becoming our great-great-great-grandfather, and he didn't have to spend much time and energy on the child.His "let me sleep and think about it" attitude is undoubtedly the result of excess sperm, and her "will you always love me" is the result of expensive eggs and a long time to come. In exchange for feeding and caring for the children born there.

Many people don't like this cold Darwinian analysis, but evolution has not set a precedent for humans.Since this "dashboard light" story applies to most animals, why should it change suddenly in the course of human evolution?Our sperm and egg cells are no different from other mammals, and the basis of reproductive behavior is the same, although there are many other elements added by culture, such as marriage contracts, true hearts, love letters, and so on.But that's another story. The rain had stopped, Mitt Roff and Alan Fry had gone home early, and so had I.Did the other drivers and those late-night listeners get a taste of this Darwinian-based "paradise"?Will they know the song existed long before the Ice Age?Looks like I have to write something more.Finally, I turned off the "lights in the dashboard".