"In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.” Part 2!

*note: installment 1 and 2 are both posted. There are 20 questions for a total 5 runs, spread across the 2 posts:
10 on #1, 10 on #2.

** To make more time for discussion,  I am putting all the pertinent information into the posts.
When we discuss on Thursday, I’m going to assume that everyone is up to speed on the subject  (so no powerpoint or
summary!). Please think about the discussion points, because those are what we’ll be focusing on. Thanks!

The Science behind the Operation

"There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid’s; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other little clues. Somewhere in the back of their minds, people were always looking for these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain.

The big eyes and lips said: I’m young and vulnerable, I can’t hurt you, and you want to protect me. And the rest said: I’m healthy, I won’t make you sick. And no matter how you felt about a pretty, there was a part of you that thought: If we had kids, they’d be healthy too. I want this pretty person.

It was biology, they said at school. Like your heart beating, you couldn’t help believing all these things, not when you saw a face like this. A pretty face.” -p. 16-17

Taken from his guide book on the Uglies series, Bogus to Bubbly, are some of Scott Westerfeld's research notes that inspired the science behind the Pretty Operation.

The Greek Golden Ratio (phi)

"In ancient Greece it was all about math. They believed that beauty had a ratio: roughly 1.618 to 1.The Greeks called this ratio phi and used it obsessively in their architecture and art. Temples like the Parthenon and the Acropolis have phi all over them. And so does George Clooney's face.

Modern science doesn't really support phi as the magic source of human beauty. Our brains are much more complicated than that. The way we see beauty has more to do with messy stuff like social history and evolution. But the Greeks' ideas weren't totally bogus...There are mathematical similarities among the faces that most of us like." -p.83-86

*if you want to know more about phi, here is a link: https://www.livescience.com/37704-phi-golden-ratio.html

The Symmetry Hypothesis

"they start by picking one side of the face, then folding it over. This is called "bilateral symmetry", an exact match between the left and the right sides of the face.

"The symmetry hypothesis is the strongest mathematical measure of beauty discovered so far. People from dozens of countries have been quizzed about computer-generated photos, and majorities everywhere prefer symmetry. Even babies stare longer at symmetrical faces than uneven ones...

So why is symmetry so popular? The answer is simple: It indicates a strong immune system. Being sick when you're a littlie knocks the growing process out of whack, and your features wind up slightly uneven. And evolution wants us to find mates who've been healthy their whole lives. We also don't want to hang out with people who might sneeze and make us sick" p. 87-88

The Averaging Hypothesis

"When we say someone has "average looks", that's not usually a good thing. But math says otherwise. One explanation is that we're all looking for a mix of features in our mates. That is, we want someone who has genes from all parts of the gene pool. Such people would presumably have a wider collection of inherited traits -- in other words, useful stuff that we want our own children to have.

An intriguing part of this research is that when people look for beauty, they seem to average their entire community. All the faces they see go into the mix." p. 89

The Exposure Effect

"Basically, we're all attracted to things we recognize....this effect also extends to human desire....if a person resembles the classic beauties of our culture, we're preprogrammed to believe that they too must be beautiful. In this way, beauty is cultural. That is, people who are considered beautiful in one country may not be considered so in another." -p. 93

Quiz questions

1. A million years of __________ had made it part of the human brain.

2. What do big eyes and lips tell you?

3. What is the title to Scott Westerfeld's guide to the Uglies series?

4. What is the ratio phi?

5. True/false: Phi is supported by modern science as the magic source of human beauty.

6. What is "bilateral symmetry"?

7. What does symmetry indicate?

8. Do babies stare longer at symmetrical faces?

9. Briefly describe the Exposure effect.

10. Is beauty cultural? In what way?

Discussion questions:

Would making people smarter overcome evolutionary wiring?

Is the solution to make everyone “equal” physically? If not, what would be your solution to inequality? Is leveling the playing field necessary?

Are we already using transhumanist methods to perfect the human form? What are those technologies? Why are
we doing it?

Is this unfair to people who cannot have the modifications done to them? Does it make the gap between
beautiful and normal/ugly significantly bigger?


**Edit (4.29 12:18a):

From class discussion it seems like everyone agrees making everyone equal in attractiveness will not actually affect
anyone's social standing. Biases and stereotypes still exist and the way people comport themselves has a great effect
on how they are perceived. Even dressing appropriately according to the severity of an event can change the first
impression of the beholder.

**