Hypothesis: domestication in pets is largely the result of selection for permanent childhood, so the pet never becomes fully autonomous and borrows top level intentions from parental authority. And homo sapiens is a domesticated hominid.
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Replying to @Plinz
It is a good hypothesis. Humans definitely show strong signs of neoteny. But autonomy is not necessarily hampered. I think the real reason is greater abstraction and generalisability, less adaptation to specific niches.
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I don't see it ; domestication presumably selected something, but if it feeds the kitties and keeps out predators what is childish? Playing, I suppose? But that must be quite recent, until 100ish yrs ago I guess domesticated mostly meant helping on the farm?
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Replying to @chrisfcarroll @Plinz
Neoteny is selected for in dogs too, which are like baby wolves. I don't think "cuteness" has anything functional to do with this selection. Neoteny would expand the ecological niches a species might occupy. Less specialization. Better suited for a wide range of jobs.
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I once thought that we bred animals and children selectively for looking cute. Now I realize that the signal shape itself is arbitrary, important is that we learn to associate it with loyal, dependent, trusting, playful.
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Neoteny is selected by nature too. Human preferences are not necessary. See e.g Axelotl. I think cuteness is just a biproduct. The functional role is greater adaptability, which was what humans were selecting for in pets. Trust, loyalty etc. also demand adaptability.
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The morphology of neotenous signaling is partially derived from anatomic constraints (skull vs face size, torso/limb ratios, limb geometry), but to an alien species we'd look all equally weird. We evolved to find certain types of chimp beautiful or cute based on evo criteria.
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