Good point. Drink (food), breathe, scream and a couple of cute reactions to keep caretakers interested. All you need to bootstrap a human growth process. There seems to be something built in about eye contact management too—because a lack there is an early indicator that something is wrong.
I’d replace “human” with “mammalian”—most young mammals share a similar set of traits, even those that aren’t constrained as we are by big brains and a pelvic girdle adapted to walking upright. That seems to suggest a more basal cuteness response; I believe the biology term is “baby schema”.
Good point. Drink (food), breathe, scream and a couple of cute reactions to keep caretakers interested. All you need to bootstrap a human growth process. There seems to be something built in about eye contact management too—because a lack there is an early indicator that something is wrong.
Not terribly relevant to your point, but it’s likely human sense of cuteness is based on what babies do rather than the other way around.
I’d replace “human” with “mammalian”—most young mammals share a similar set of traits, even those that aren’t constrained as we are by big brains and a pelvic girdle adapted to walking upright. That seems to suggest a more basal cuteness response; I believe the biology term is “baby schema”.
Other than that, yeah.