These foolish things / 這些愚蠢的玩意兒

Of course, love is about more than just genes. Cultural and social factors, and learning, play big roles. Who and how a person has loved in the past are important determinants of his (or her) capacity to fall in love at any given moment in the future. This is because animals—people included—learn from their sexual and social experiences. Arousal comes naturally. But long-term success in mating requires a change from being naive about this state to knowing the precise factors that lead from arousal to the rewards of sex, love and attachment. For some humans, this may involve flowers, chocolate and sweet words. But these things are learnt.

當然，愛情不止與基因有關。文化社會因素和后天的學習在其中也扮演著重要的角色。一個人曾經愛過誰？如何愛過？對他(她)將來任何時刻的相愛能力都是決定性的因素，因為動物（包括人類）能從他們的性和社會經驗中進行學習。性喚醒可本能地產生，但長期而成功的配偶關系，卻需要一個對愛情各種精確因素從無知到熟悉的改變過程，這個過程包括由性喚醒而導致性行為、愛和附屬關系產生對大腦的獎賞。對于一些人來說，這可能包括鮮花、巧克力和甜言蜜語：這些都是可以學會的。

If humans become conditioned by their experiences, this may be the reason why some people tend to date the same “type” of partner over and over again. Researchers think humans develop a “love map” as they grow up—a blueprint that contains the many things that they have learnt are attractive. This inner scorecard is something that people use to rate the suitability of mates. Yet the idea that humans are actually born with a particular type of “soul mate” wired into their desires is wrong. Research on the choices of partner made by identical twins suggests that the development of love maps takes time, and has a strong random component.

人類常常會囿于自身的經驗，因此某些人總喜歡一再地和相同“類型”伴侶約會。研究人員認為，隨著人們年齡的增長，他們會在大腦內發展一個“愛情地圖”——一個包含許多人們已經熟悉的、魅力事物的藍圖。這個內部記分卡是人們用于評價配偶適合度的依據。認為特定類型的“精神伴侶”與欲望的內在聯系是與生俱來，這種想法是錯誤的。對同卵雙胞胎擇偶的研究表明，愛情地圖的發展需要時間，而且有很強的隨機成份。

Work on rats is leading researchers such as Dr Pfaus to wonder whether the template of features found attractive by an individual is formed during a critical period of sexual-behaviour development. He says that even in animals that are not supposed to pair-bond, such as rats, these features may get fixed with the experience of sexual reward. Rats can be conditioned to prefer particular types of partner—for example by pairing sexual reward with some kind of cue, such as lemon-scented members of the opposite sex. This work may help the understanding of unusual sexual preferences. Human fetishes, for example, develop early, and are almost impossible to change. The fetishist connects objects such as feet, shoes, stuffed toys and even balloons, that have a visual association with childhood sexual experiences, to sexual gratification.

針對家鼠的研究工作使Pfaus博士等研究人員力圖查明：具有異性魅力的特征模板，是不是在性行為發展的關鍵時期形成的？他認為，即使在沒有伴侶連接習性的動物當中——如家鼠——這些特征仍可能通過性獎賞的經驗固定下來。家鼠能條件反射地偏愛特別類型的伴侶。舉例來說，性獎賞同時伴隨著某種提示條件，比如具有檸檬氣息的異性。這項工作也許有助于對異常的性偏愛的理解。例如，人類的戀物情結發展于早期，而且幾乎是不可改變。戀物癖者會把童年時期在視覺上和性經驗關聯的物體與性滿足連接起來，諸如腳、鞋子、布玩具甚至氣球等。

So love, in all its glory, is just, it seems, a chemical state with genetic roots and environmental influences. But all this work leads to other questions. If scientists can make a more sociable mouse, might it be possible to create a more sociable human? And what about a more loving one? A few people even think that “paradise-engineering”, dedicated to abolishing the “biological substrates of human suffering”, is rather a good idea.

因此，關于愛的所有光彩之處，看上去只不過是具有遺傳基礎和受環境影響的一種化學狀態。與此相關，這兒涉及的一切還將導致更多其他的問題。如果科學家能制造一只社會性更強的老鼠，那么他們是否可能產生一個社會性更強的人呢？創造一個更惹人喜愛的人，其結果又將如何？一些人甚至認為致力于廢除“人類受難的生物學基體”的“天堂工程”，是一個非常不錯的主意。