Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
If the analogy between this society and bonobos is made complete, then their society will be very different from ours, with sex used very liberally and with no real romantic relationships. To quote from Wikipedia: "Bonobos do not form permanent monogamous sexual relationships with individual partners. They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by sex or age, with the possible exception of abstaining from sexual intercourse between mothers and their adult sons. When bonobos come upon a new food source or feeding ground, the increased excitement will usually lead to communal sexual activity, presumably decreasing tension and encouraging peaceful feeding." They get rid of all that sexual energy and are intimate with just about everyone, so there is little room for jealousy and conflict over mates. It would be weird (and interesting) to see that in a human group.
The verbal infodump was huge. This would normally be a bad thing, very far from "show, don't tell." But here it somehow worked. Maybe because it all seemed so expectable. Maybe because there was so much else going on. In any case, the episode sped along and was over long before I expected it to be. |
Without rewiring human nature completely, a society based that way simply wouldn't exist, but it is one of those interesting ideas.