As I've gotten older, I mean.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 84 points 10 months ago (1 child)

At a certain age your ears have heard enough bullshit and it's time to start enjoying life.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago

    Man. I hit that age around 7 years old. They told me PeeWee Herman wasn't going to be on TV anymore because he had fun in a movie theater. Tried asking why that was wrong. No adult would tell me. So I put two and two together and decided that this world is pissing me off.

    To be fair, I'm 41, and stand by that to this day. PeeWee did nothing wrong, even AFTER knowing the full story.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 56 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    You have moved into the decline phase. You have shot your shot, and you’re out of evolutionary competition.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    Gah! Everyone keeps saying this. One more time and I'll leave it alone; men seek mates and can make babies their entire lives.

    I had my first kid at 42, another at 45. Know a guy that's 70 with a 9-yo.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 45 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It's basically your body aging and breaking down, which leads to hormone imbalances and the like. Tons of stuff our bodies do doesn't have an evolutionary advantage, it's just that it's not really a big disadvantage for the survival of your genes.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    But it started at 21 😭😭

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    You made it to 21? Humblebrag

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago*

    ok but like if you're growing up under increasingly fascist America it seriously is an accomplishment. Especially if you're queer or ESPECIALLY trans. Trans people have a 50% rate of attempted suicide by 18 and that's not even counting in deaths from other sources. or even from the current year (which I imagine has gone up a LOT)
    A number that is seriously high for no reason.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 36 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Unlikely that anything happening when your old is selected for - you've already passed on your genes if you're going to and nothing is helping you do it more.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    But surely you can still get a genetic advantage by helping out your kids.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I'm not a geneticist or anthropologist, but apparently that's a debated, not proven mechanism. The theory being that natural selection works not just on individuals, but on societies. So if older members of a society are more inclined to help take care of the young, that society is more likely to survive, so that trait is more likely to get passed along and become more common in the population. That mechanism would only apply to social/pack animals (like humans), so wouldn't apply to, say, turtles.

    But it's hard to argue that ear hair in old men helps their society thrive. More likely, it's just one more trait that is a result of aging and not selected for, like grey hair or wrinkles.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I don't think anyone denies that whatever happens after you no longer pass your genes around has no evolutionary effect.

    Whether helping your offspring is evolutionarily helpful or not might be debatable (I don't see how it would not be helpful though)

    Even in beings that not form societies it has an impact. Example:

    You reproduce, then instantly die. Now your offspring have more available resources around them, since you no longer consume them

    Or, your reproduce and you become much stronger, but not aggressive towards non-predators. Now predators are less likely to be near you, and your offspring are probably near you. Therefore, they probably benefit from having less predators around.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I should have included those things an individual does to help their direct offspring - those also help you pass along your genes. Whether it's nurturing your young, or dying and letting them feed off your corpse, anything you do to help them survive can be part of natural selection too. Don't those things increases the likelihood of that trait being found in the population. Ear hair isn't one of those things.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    You don’t think watching people age has any effect on young people’s desire to reproduce?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I remember in college, there was a human sexuality class that used what was essentially porn, but with really old people, to reduce the number of people who took the class to watch porn.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    What now? This made zero sense.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Natural selection works when you have a trait that makes you more successful at living long enough to pass along your genes or at attracting a mate to pass them along with. Your offspring are more likely to inherit that trait and so they're more likely to pass along their genes as well, so the trait is more prevalent in the population. Conversely, if you have a trait that makes it harder for you to live, you're less likely to pass along your genes, and so that trait is more likely to be less present in the population. If you have a trait that doesn't impact your ability to live long enough to pass along your genes or attract a mate, it has no impact on natural selection.

    So if you have a trait that only appears after you're past the baby making stage, it's not playing into natural selection. By definition, that trait didn't help you survive or attract a mate or whatever before having kids and passing it along. It just happens, like lots of other traits.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 34 points 10 months ago

    Untested feature. User is using the product after the End Of Support date.

  • source
  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    Older people need warmth and avoiding ants crawling into ears?

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    It's not that logical. It could be a by-product of some other process with some advantage to our species. Or maybe it just happened and didn't increase our chance of death.

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    It gives us old farts something to talk about, reinforcing the community of elder carers in the tribe, and thus the health of the tribe.

    That's bollocks, by the way. All I know is that it's fucking weird when you have to shave your ear lobes.

  • source
  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    What happens with your body after the age your ancestors procreated has nothing to do with evolutionary advantage.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I'm assuming OP's a man as I don't know any women this has happened to. Men can make babies their whole life, not like women who go through menopause. I know a guy that's 70, his wife is 30 and their son is 9.

    All that to say, it's still a little odd this unattractive trait strikes men who can, and often are, looking for mates and making babies.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    Evolution doesn't quite work like that. Traits aren't always selected for/against, we have a ton of traits that we're ambivalent enough about to pass on, like eye color and ear hair. It's neither advantageous or disadvantageous, people are just horny enough that it doesn't matter and gets passed on.

  • source
  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Like most things, it’s an accident, a side-effect, a mutation. And, it doesn’t offer any disadvantage that kills you before you have a chance to mate.

    So it continues on, because it doesn’t matter.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Because after the point of fertility, our genetic code is a trashbin of terrible genes. Your genetic code is the product of millennia of selective pressure for breeding, and once that period has passed, we are left with a number of genetic disorders that, as irrelevant as they are to reproduction, become more pronounced.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    It's head hair being excreted out yoir ears. Takes time to work its way down, like medival glass slumping.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • source
  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Bullshit filters.

  • source
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago*

    There may not be an evolutionary advantage. Humans have developed empathy to care for each other, so many of us tend to do what we can to ensure that those who may have inherited or developed disadvantageous traits can still live full and happy lives, which also means those genes may be passed on to future generations. Hairy ears, wisdom teeth, color blindness, cystic fibrosis, etc. all may be disadvantageous genetic traits, but this presents the ethical question of if we would rather help the individuals with these genes be happy and reproduce, or if we would rather tell these people that they are forbidden from passing on these genes to protect the next generation from the afflictions (by way of direct genocide, selective breeding of humans, or gene selection and embryo screening).

  • source
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    "The reason is I made it the fuck up!"

    --Your body

  • source
  • Tickle your wife's nose as she whispers in your ear?

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    You’ve recently been bitten by a werewolf?

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Perhaps it is an advantage to feel more sensitive with ear and nose hair, while your eyesight deteriorates.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Senescent cells emit growth factors. Hair cells divide. More hair in your ear.

    It's just aging. Not advantageous per se, but species' lifespan is adapted to their ecosystem.

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Every year my head hair grows slower and my everywhere else hair grows quicker.

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    It makes you irresistable to women, thus propagating your blood line.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Maybe not evolutionary advantage, but vestigial origin. Maybe a feature that is in the middle of development / disappearing.

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›