<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear Rainer & FIS Colleagues,</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">The impact of sexual selection on human
evolution can hardly be overestimated. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">While the transformation of female body
and the permanence of breasts, the other side was also
experimenting concerted changes: </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Aggressivity was diminishing (far less
jaw, loss of protruding canines), less hair, less sexual
dimorphism... self-domestication is a term often used.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">More cooperation and larger social
groups become possible. Language will multiply the effects and
possibilities.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">But in that larger social context, in
order to maintain the strong bonds necessary for family survival,
apart from more permanent sex, beauty and romantic love emerge. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">It prolongs predispositions already
present in most species, not only the advanced ones. </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">In the human case it is amazing how the
"complex of love" will be handled around from the great arts to
all kind of realms.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">It is a "superglue" of our species,
though other potent emotional solvents enter: jealousy, envy,
humiliation, resentment, revenge... </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">The mess where we live.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Best --Pedro</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> </div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">El 19/02/2026 a las 15:55, Rainer
Feistel (IOW) escribió:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:d8a76edf-f22b-4ee3-a7bf-b709a5a03ec3@iow.de">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p>Dear Christophe,<br>
<br>
My approach to pre-human evolution is a very narrow but general
one, namely, the specifically human evolution of symbols. As any
other organism, thermodynamically, humans are metastable, active
systems far from equilibrium. Minor internal or external effects
may trigger macroscopic activities by releasing energy that had
been accumulated internally.<br>
<br>
To those small triggers belong neuronal signals which, as a
result of mental processes, seem to play a much more important
role in humans than in any other species. Any activities,
including sexual ones, are started or stopped by decisions which
release an associated trigger for, say, a well-structured
cascade of muscle contractions or the like.<br>
<br>
Such decisions are the result of alternative prediction models
for the expected future impact of the perticular decision. Many
such prediction models are genetically inherited and result from
phylogenetic experience of all successful ancestors, other such
models from the individual ontogenetic experience during the
personal life, and finally, rather specific for humans, certain
models result from cultural experience by symbolic communication
with other humans by books, diaries, chats etc.<br>
<br>
Prediction models associate weights to the alternative potential
activities. Comparison of those weights results in a decision.
From introspection we know that inherited weights include pain,
anxiety, happiness or pleasure, as "qualia", and this may apply
similarly to all higher animals.<br>
<br>
To survive on the ground, hominins developed intense social
cooperation, controlled by symbolic mutual communication and
advanced mental information processing. The progress of such
capabilities dominated hominin evolution, including the later
development of science and technology with its sophisticated
prediction models in the form of cooking recipes, mathematical
theories or technical construction plans. <br>
<br>
For more details, please see "On the evolution of symbols and
prediction models", <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-023-09528-9__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XCKMy8AMH4OWQbt3KiZ729DnFzYLKKS9bR1SViJzrIO71adqIWFGavOGescE3tC3kRLVod8Uzup_tYVavz-WDjKX-iPS$" moz-do-not-send="true">https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-023-09528-9</a> <br>
<br>
Rainer</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 19.02.2026 um 12:53 schrieb
Christophe Menant:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BESP189MB32826010AFB370827D3A76328C6BA@BESP189MB3282.EURP189.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;">P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}</style>
<div
style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof"> <span class="elementToProof">Dear
Rainer,</span></div>
<div
style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof"> <span class="elementToProof">Thanks
for your support. Our evolutionary frameworks look indeed
close.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">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 class="elementToProof">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 class="elementToProof">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);"
class="elementToProof"> <br>
</div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%" tabindex="-1">
<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt"
color="#000000"><b>De :</b> Rainer Feistel (IOW) <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" moz-do-not-send="true"><rainer.feistel@iow.de></a><br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> mercredi 18 février 2026 18:24<br>
<b>À :</b> Christophe Menant <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr"
moz-do-not-send="true"><christophe.menant@hotmail.fr></a><br>
<b>Cc :</b> <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" moz-do-not-send="true">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" moz-do-not-send="true"><fis@listas.unizar.es></a>;
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><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
class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<christophe.menant@hotmail.fr></a><br>
An: <a
class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" moz-do-not-send="true">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a>
<a class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" moz-do-not-send="true"><rainer.feistel@iow.de></a><br>
Kopie (CC): <a
class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" moz-do-not-send="true">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>
<a class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es" moz-do-not-send="true"><fis@listas.unizar.es></a>,
<a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a> <a
class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><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 class="x_moz-txt-link-freetext moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XCKMy8AMH4OWQbt3KiZ729DnFzYLKKS9bR1SViJzrIO71adqIWFGavOGescE3tC3kRLVod8Uzup_tYVavz-WDr-U32b3$" originalsrc="https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf" moz-do-not-send="true">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 class="x_moz-cite-prefix">Am 18.02.2026 um 14:25 schrieb
Christophe Menant:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none">p
{margin-top:0;
margin-bottom:0}</style>
<div class="x_elementToProof"
style="margin:0cm; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span class="x_elementToProof">Dear Rainer,</span><br>
<span class="x_elementToProof">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 class="x_elementToProof">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 class="x_elementToProof"
style="color:blue"><u><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="2" originalsrc="https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="Protégé par Outlook : https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf. Cliquez ou appuyez pour suivre le lien." class="x_x_OWAAutoLink x_moz-txt-link-freetext moz-txt-link-freetext" id="OWA4549a4e5-43fc-cf0f-9d30-7ad6665feba3" target="_blank" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XCKMy8AMH4OWQbt3KiZ729DnFzYLKKS9bR1SViJzrIO71adqIWFGavOGescE3tC3kRLVod8Uzup_tYVavz-WDr-U32b3$" style="color:blue; margin:0px" moz-do-not-send="true">https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf</a></u></span><span
class="x_elementToProof">). 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 class="x_elementToProof"
style="margin:0cm; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<span class="x_elementToProof">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 class="x_elementToProof">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 class="x_elementToProof">- No mating season, sexual
pleasure possible at any time. Permanent breast as
signal.</span><br>
<span class="x_elementToProof">- Sexual behaviors embedded
in symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems. More
emotional sharing by face mating.</span><br>
<span class="x_elementToProof">- Sexual pleasure layered
with self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment, anxiety,
and meaning.</span><br>
<span class="x_elementToProof">- Sexual pleasure more
intense as psychologically deeper, more elaborated and
more cognitively amplified.</span><br>
<span class="x_elementToProof">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 class="x_elementToProof">Thanks again Rainer for
having introduced it.</span></div>
<div class="x_elementToProof"
style="margin:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div class="x_elementToProof"
style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div class="x_elementToProof"
style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="x_moz-signature" cols="72">--
Note: New Email Address: <a
class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" moz-do-not-send="true">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>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Note: New Email Address: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de" moz-do-not-send="true">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>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
</body>
</html>