April 05, 2004

We got lucky there...

I just heard on BBC that the Max Planck institute just finished a detailed comparison of the genetic structure of humans and chimpanzees. They found that over the last million years, humans have apparently lost much of the sense of smell we used to have.

Honestly, let's all thank fuck for that... I've said for years that I wish I had twice as much vision and half as much smell.

Whatever.

Posted by case at April 5, 2004 07:21 AM
Comments

Yeah that sounds as though it would be a lot easier than the current internet-dating-hell I find myself in. Of course what if they looked like Quasimodo? would you have to put your money where your mouth was--so to speak?!

Ha, whatever deviant thing you're into...hee, a walk down the street could get even more interesting than it already is...

Posted by: Deborah at April 6, 2004 03:16 AM

Actually I think the Japanese were on to something with the Tamagotchi thing- for a while they were marketing male and female Tamagotchis, which sent out radio waves on two different frequencies, so if you had a male one and it came within five meters of a female one, both would light up. The obvious next step is to encode your entire profile into the Tamagotchi- everything about yourself and your preferences in a mate- so when someone with a compatible profile comes in RF range- *bling*! you both light up and you know you've found true love (or, you know, a partner for whatever deviant thing you're into at least...) It kills me cuz the Japanese just dropped the whole idea and never got into the more interesting social implications.

Posted by: Case at April 5, 2004 06:00 PM

Hmmmm...OK, I guess, but think how much easier it would be to find your mate if we could smell pheromones better. Smell is a huge player in the lover sweepstakes as it is. We could be just walking down the street and kaching! OK! you're for me! LOL or maybe not.

At least if sense of smell were better there would be fewer people reeking of Calvin Klein's latest (although I would certainly still have a lovely scent of Fracas about me). Or remember when Giorgio or Opium was popular? ack!

Does Denmark not smell very nice, Peter? ;)

Posted by: Deborah at April 5, 2004 08:37 AM