Comments on: My not-so-terrifying encounter with a syndactylist. http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/07/22/my-not-so-terrifying-encounter-with-a-syndactylist/ Human Animals at the Crossroads of Culture, Science, Religion and Media Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:28:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Mike Pulcinella http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/07/22/my-not-so-terrifying-encounter-with-a-syndactylist/#comment-22044 Mike Pulcinella Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:42:50 +0000 http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=2886#comment-22044 I'll bet he can swim faster than you! I’ll bet he can swim faster than you!

]]> By: Erika Price http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/07/22/my-not-so-terrifying-encounter-with-a-syndactylist/#comment-22030 Erika Price Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:40:06 +0000 http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=2886#comment-22030 While it will embarrass me to say this and seem intolerant, I must admit I have an initial reaction of slight revulsion and disgust to even minor deformities such as this. I suspect this comes from an evolutionary underpinning, a creeping desire to remove oneself from the strange, malformed body parts that hint at genetic inferiority. Often, though, this instinct protects us from nothing at all: your syndactylist carries no dangerous condition, and suffers no physical impairment from his strange extremity. We shouldn't fear him! We shouldn't even notice the trait! Yet his conjoined toes do summon up a weirdly immediate internal red-flag: a sense that <i>something is not right here</i>. In this case, I can only feel thankful that we have both a strong foundation of evolution-driven behavior <i>and</i> a developed frontal lobe that can help us override its prejudices! While it will embarrass me to say this and seem intolerant, I must admit I have an initial reaction of slight revulsion and disgust to even minor deformities such as this. I suspect this comes from an evolutionary underpinning, a creeping desire to remove oneself from the strange, malformed body parts that hint at genetic inferiority. Often, though, this instinct protects us from nothing at all: your syndactylist carries no dangerous condition, and suffers no physical impairment from his strange extremity. We shouldn’t fear him! We shouldn’t even notice the trait! Yet his conjoined toes do summon up a weirdly immediate internal red-flag: a sense that something is not right here.

In this case, I can only feel thankful that we have both a strong foundation of evolution-driven behavior and a developed frontal lobe that can help us override its prejudices!

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