<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;text-indent:14.2pt;line-height:normal;background:rgb(248,249,250);font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)">Dear Rainer,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;background:rgb(248,249,250);font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)">silence is a moment when everything is possible. Thank
you anyway.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;text-indent:14.2pt;line-height:normal;background:rgb(248,249,250);font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)">Francesco, </span><span style="font-size:21pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;text-indent:14.2pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Caro Rainer,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">il silenzio è un momento in cui tutto è possibile. Grazie lo stesso.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;text-align:justify;text-indent:14.2pt;line-height:normal;background:rgb(248,249,250);font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Francesco</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)">.</span><span style="font-size:21pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:rgb(31,31,31)"></span></p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Il giorno gio 19 feb 2026 alle ore 12:53 Christophe Menant <<a href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr">christophe.menant@hotmail.fr</a>> ha scritto:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-4367007981264684202">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="margin:0cm;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span>Dear Rainer,</span></div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span>Thanks for your support. Our evolutionary frameworks look indeed close.</span><br>
<span>More precisely, how would you support the specific and important development of sexual pleasure by our pre-human ancestors to limit anxiety as a key part of our phylum evolution?</span><br>
<span>Anxiety limitation with its various feedback (see drawing) is for me part of an evolutionary engine that brought us from LCAncestor to today humans. That engine is still active. I feel that the better we understand its nature, the
better we can address human possible future (ex: vs de-identification fueling some of our evil trends).</span><br>
<span>A lot remains to be done, and it is interesting (and a bit surprising) to note that philosophy of mind has had so far little interest for our pre-human evolution. </span></div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div id="m_-1888656070729454295appendonsend"></div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_-1888656070729454295divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>De :</b> Rainer Feistel (IOW) <<a href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" target="_blank">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a>><br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> mercredi 18 février 2026 18:24<br>
<b>À :</b> Christophe Menant <<a href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr" target="_blank">christophe.menant@hotmail.fr</a>><br>
<b>Cc :</b> <a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">fis@listas.unizar.es</a> <<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>>; <a href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com" target="_blank">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a> <<a href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com" target="_blank">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a>><br>
<b>Objet :</b> [Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety management</font>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<p>Dear Christophe,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your support and additional suggestions.<br>
It seems to me that your description is perfectly consistent with my scenario, and a possible fruitful extension.<br>
<br>
In my fictitious narrative, the transition to bipedal gait lowered the reproduction rate to a subcritical level.<br>
Only a series of severe transitions in sexual behaviour could keep hominins away from the brink of extinction.<br>
Among those have likely been the concealed oestrus of females and the resulting permanent sexual interest of males.<br>
The consecutive instabilities and innovations in this chain ended with the grandmother effect that ensured survival<br>
in a final stable sexual regime. This is actually the end of my narrative.<br>
<br>
This process had established frequent mating activities in excess of just a few required for siring offspring.<br>
As you say "it was possible for our ancestors to extend sexual pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of reproduction concerns".<br>
Sexual interaction, consequently, became a relevant part of the social life of hominins, to serve for emotional<br>
comfort, individual bindings, friendship and mutual assistance in feeding or personal hygiene, etc.<br>
Your list of sex-based relations and behaviours fits very well to this.<br>
<br>
Thank you for your contribution,<br>
Rainer<br>
<br>
<br>
Betreff: [Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety management<br>
Datum: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:25:37 +0000<br>
Von: Christophe Menant <a href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr" target="_blank">
<christophe.menant@hotmail.fr></a><br>
An: <a href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" target="_blank">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a>
<a href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" target="_blank"><rainer.feistel@iow.de></a><br>
Kopie (CC): <a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>
<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank"><fis@listas.unizar.es></a>,
<a href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com" target="_blank">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a>
<a href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com" target="_blank"><pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com></a><br>
<br>
<br>
Dear Rainer,<br>
Your focus on the transition to bipedal gait as supporting pre-human sexual evolution is original and interesting. It highlights a complex subject that may be influencing our human behavior much more than assumed. Regarding this last perspective, let me propose
a possible development of human sexuality based on sexual related pleasures that our pre-human ancestors may have been looking for in order to limit a specific pre-human anxiety.<br>
You may know the hypothesis about evolution of our ancestors toward self-consciousness bringing them to face new anxieties coming from identifications with suffering conspecifics (<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SQF2gHWYFh9njsByOMSr4m7Rpm7tYEHM72nyYRS0HFa68DSPokEWZ2hNyAsYeKVnQaxdpRJWmWLt525MCIANDwgjZhYsPOix$" target="_blank">https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf</a>).
To limit that mental suffering our ancestors may have been obliged to look for new anxiety limitation processes. Pleasure, as naturally limiting anxiety, could have been a candidate for various developments in that perspective. More precisely, it was possible
for our ancestors to extend sexual pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of reproduction concerns. Developing and amplifying sexual relations could have been an easy, and quite natural, way for our ancestors to limit the anxiety increase they
were facing.<br>
What is proposed here is that our ancestors have capitalized on sexual pleasures to develop sources of anxiety limitation. This could have led pre-human sexuality to become highly ritualized and very different from chimpanzee’s sexual behaviours.<br>
For instance, here are some human sexual specificities the implementation of which could illustrate the search for more pleasure by our pre-human ancestors:<br>
- No mating season, sexual pleasure possible at any time. Permanent breast as signal.<br>
- Sexual behaviors embedded in symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems. More emotional sharing by face mating.<br>
- Sexual pleasure layered with self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment, anxiety, and meaning.<br>
- Sexual pleasure more intense as psychologically deeper, more elaborated and more cognitively amplified.<br>
The above hypothesis brings sexuality and anxiety limitation to be at the forefront of human motivations. This subject is not new but deserves being developed a bit more, I feel.<br>
Thanks again Rainer for having introduced it.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<div>Am 18.02.2026 um 14:25 schrieb Christophe Menant:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="margin:0cm;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span>Dear Rainer,</span><br>
<span>Your focus on the transition to bipedal gait as supporting pre-human sexual evolution is original and interesting. It highlights a complex subject that may be influencing our human behavior much more than assumed. Regarding this
last perspective, let me propose a possible development of human sexuality based on sexual related pleasures that our pre-human ancestors may have been looking for in order to limit a specific pre-human anxiety.</span><br>
<span>You may know the hypothesis about evolution of our ancestors toward self-consciousness bringing them to face new anxieties coming from identifications with suffering conspecifics (</span><span style="color:blue"><u><a rel="noopener noreferrer" title="Protégé par Outlook : https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf. Cliquez ou appuyez pour suivre le lien." id="m_-1888656070729454295OWA4549a4e5-43fc-cf0f-9d30-7ad6665feba3" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SQF2gHWYFh9njsByOMSr4m7Rpm7tYEHM72nyYRS0HFa68DSPokEWZ2hNyAsYeKVnQaxdpRJWmWLt525MCIANDwgjZhYsPOix$" style="color:blue;margin:0px" target="_blank">https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf</a></u></span><span>).
To limit that mental suffering our ancestors may have been obliged to look for new anxiety limitation processes. Pleasure, as naturally limiting anxiety, could have been a candidate for various developments in that perspective. More precisely, it was possible
for our ancestors to extend sexual pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of reproduction concerns. Developing and amplifying sexual relations could have been an easy, and quite natural, way for our ancestors to limit the anxiety increase they
were facing.</span></div>
<div style="margin:0cm;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span>What is proposed here is that our ancestors have capitalized on sexual pleasures to develop sources of anxiety limitation. This could have led pre-human sexuality to become highly ritualized and very different from chimpanzee’s
sexual behaviours.</span><br>
<span>For instance, here are some human sexual specificities the implementation of which could illustrate the search for more pleasure by our pre-human ancestors:</span><br>
<span>- No mating season, sexual pleasure possible at any time. Permanent breast as signal.</span><br>
<span>- Sexual behaviors embedded in symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems. More emotional sharing by face mating.</span><br>
<span>- Sexual pleasure layered with self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment, anxiety, and meaning.</span><br>
<span>- Sexual pleasure more intense as psychologically deeper, more elaborated and more cognitively amplified.</span><br>
<span>The above hypothesis brings sexuality and anxiety limitation to be at the forefront of human motivations. This subject is not new but deserves being developed a bit more, I feel.</span><br>
<span>Thanks again Rainer for having introduced it.</span></div>
<div style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre cols="72">--
Note: New Email Address: <a href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" target="_blank">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a>
Dr. rer. nat. habil. Rainer Feistel
Physicist (emeritus)
PS Gustav Hertz Prize, Berlin 1981
CITAC Best Paper Award, Paris 2011
IAPWS Honorary Fellow, London 2013
BIPM Metrologia Highlight Articles, Paris 2016
EGU Fridtjof Nansen Medal, Vienna 2018
LS Daniel Ernst Jablonski Medal, Berlin 2021
IAPWS Gibbs Award, Boulder, Co., 2024</pre>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Fis mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Fis@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">Fis@listas.unizar.es</a><br>
<a href="http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis</a><br>
----------<br>
INFORMACIÓN SOBRE PROTECCIÓN DE DATOS DE CARÁCTER PERSONAL<br>
<br>
Ud. recibe este correo por pertenecer a una lista de correo gestionada por la Universidad de Zaragoza.<br>
Puede encontrar toda la información sobre como tratamos sus datos en el siguiente enlace: <a href="https://sicuz.unizar.es/informacion-sobre-proteccion-de-datos-de-caracter-personal-en-listas" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://sicuz.unizar.es/informacion-sobre-proteccion-de-datos-de-caracter-personal-en-listas</a><br>
Recuerde que si está suscrito a una lista voluntaria Ud. puede darse de baja desde la propia aplicación en el momento en que lo desee.<br>
<a href="http://listas.unizar.es" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://listas.unizar.es</a><br>
----------<br>
</div></blockquote></div>