Ideas worth spreading

TED2009

February 2009

|3.8M views

Cute, sexy, sweet, funny

Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are funny).

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are funny).

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Philosopher, cognitive scientist

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Dan Dennett thinks that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes.