Whats this? Two posts in as many days? Madness!

[lorimt]

I'm curious. How much do you feel beholden to biology? Not, oh wow, biology has done some great stuff, but rather things like instinct or such impulses. I tend to think of myself as fairly independant of such things, nurture and personal goals taking a much stronger role in most decisions I make. Anyone else? Any particulars where you do or don't obey some sort of natural or biological demand? What sorts of things? I'm especially interested in personal choices or ideas rather than observations about humans in general.

(It just occured to me, and I realize I have no idea how typical my approach to such things actually is.)

EDIT:
In rereading, I can see I danced around what on earth I was talking about. Things like bobbzman wrote about. For example, I know that I will do something different just because I'm scared, or unhappy or whatever, even when unrelated to mood. Stuff like that, if that makes sense. Not just emotional response, but things where I'm more rationalizing an action than rationally deciding to do something, or feeling an impulse to do something even when it seems like a bad idea. ::mutters:: I'm not really talking about emotion, I'm just not sure how to distinguish this case. Stuff like sithjawa are good examples too, and not ones that occured to me originally.

EDIT THE SECOND:
I'm still not coherent. I'll try again some other time when I've had time to think, and wave my hands about while talking at people.

Comments

[meep.livejournal.com]

Everyday, I get the urge to go to the restroom... and I do it. And I get the urge to eat... and I do it. And then sex.... if that ain't biology, I don't know what is.

Let's see, I also talk in my sleep, and grind my teeth (used to sleepwalk) -- these are also obviously biology, because I sure as hell am not choosing to do it.

And then don't get me started on the whole pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood thing. One has reactions that definitely aren't conscious choice, and have a lot to do with the hormones (and other things). I remember having to tell Stuart sometimes that I wasn't really sad, it was just the hormones making me cry and we should wait for it to pass...

Really, it's hard to tell what you're trying to get at here. Most of life is actually biology, not conscious choice. You're tired, you sleep. One has visceral reactions to emotional things. One takes dislikes to people for no conscious reason. All that jazz.

[meep.livejournal.com]

Here's something interesting about biology and brains:

http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=1898