Virtual tickling.

Virtual Tickling
Andre Willers
13 Jun 2012
Synopsis:
Tickling is one of the few stand-downs for human stressors . It can be mimicked .
Discussion :
Tickling evolved from the baby clutching the mother . The mother’s body hair lightly tickled (knismesis – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickling ) . But clutching the mother tightly , the baby sensed the interplay of the mother’s muscles (gargalesis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickling)
If the baby loses its grip and falls , the Moro reflex kicks in ( See Appendix II) . also why some humans have a fear of falling .
A light tickling can be done by the individual (ie surprise is not necessary ). Hence the success of the Comb (See Appendix I) . Self-grooming is possible .
Heavy tickling (gargalesis) :
This is important enough that separate threat-evaluations at the astrocytes and amygdala evolved to deal with it . A short period stimulation is stress->flight->mother->stand-down , but prolonged periods without a stand-down just increases the stress levels. Torture , in other words . And it has been used as such by humans (see Tickle torture)
The heavy-tickling reputedly needs randomness , but from the argument above randomness mimicking the musculature of the back of a fast-moving mother will be a super-image .
In other words , make like Tarzan swinging through the treetops with baby cling to your back .

Both light tickling and heavy tickling are needed to convince the baby it is safe and the various reflexes can stand down . Safe back at mommy’s back .
Smiling :
Baby smiling is signalling approval , but also part of the stand-down process .
The gurgling I draw the line at .

Clutching : another necessary .
Baby clutches mother , hard .
Fingerpads and biceps must also signal that docking has occurred .
The Combing Reflex:
Licking , grabbing and holding is interpreted by the baby that Mother really cares . Combing must then be classified as as a light-tickling .


Virtual Tickling can now be envisaged .
1.Heavy tickling is the ticklish question .
For a single person : (like a comb)
1.1 Clutch the edge of a desk with the left hand , where all the fingertips are gripping (including the thumb) . Tense the biceps as if you are clutching hard . Use the right hand to pressure-stimulate parts of the left torso and upper thighs . Target armpit regions . But any left-side torso region will do . Smile without baring the teeth .
1.2 Repeat with right hand .
No more than five minutes (potentiating threshold)
Try it . There is a marked reduction of basal stress . And subsequent increase in immune system efficiency (order of 4) .
Two persons are about four times better . Hence the prevalence of marriage .
This did not happen all at once . So , there must be a memory component .It is very old ,

See you at the Tickleodeon .
Andre
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Appendix I
Combs
Andre Willers
24 April 2008

The oldest profession .
Hair Dressing and Grooming .

The time-traveller with hairdressing and grooming skills can get a job anytime back to hominid days . Beats plumbing any day .

This partially explains the queer gene : Faux-queer . A cunning stratagem to get close to females without the usual male chest-beating .

Discussion:

Grooming is built-in to the hair of mammals .

Hairs get tangled and knotted ( see Theory of Knots) . Your personal experience is that after day’s activity and a night’s sleep , your hair gets tangled and knotted . The theory shows that it is nearly certain that this will occur in any system with three degrees of freedom .

Tangled hair is a bit of no-no to our homonin . It shows that it cannot get a grooming partner . Parasites also have access to unprotected skin .

Chaos first did the weaving with knots and tangles .

Un-weaving was then invented .

Initially fingernails , then a sharp , hard pointed stick ( a one-toothed comb) to tease the knots apart ..
When a favourite stick was kept , it became a tool .

A one-toothed comb .

Found all over in old sites , but usually called something else .

Plaiting of hair followed . Then some unsung woman genius inverted it and plaited grasses and other fibrous growths . Ropes and nets were invented .
Physical strength became unnecessary .
Mk I humans followed .

MkII humans followed after Toba , when weaving was invented as insulation (clothes) . So was fashion , and the world was never the same .

From the evidence , fashion seems to be a more powerful driver than anything . I would like to put an “except” here , but from the Greenland evidence where people starved to death because eating abundant fish around them was “out of fashion” with some old bishop I cannot .

What is of interest is that un-weaving was invented first , then weaving .
Note the correlation of Peace being invented before War .

Multiple-tooth combs .
An invention so ubiquitous that every human on the planet today has one and uses it at least once a day .

It enables an individual to self-groom . You can comb out the tangles in your hair or pelt by your own , without help .

This had an enormous effect on the development of civilization . The very concept of individualism is predicated on the existence of combs .

It frees the individual from the tyranny of the group .

An unkempt individual is excluded . No ifs or buts . Look around you at the homeless people . Once grooming is lost , so is social acceptance and survival . Hence the large number of spaza-hairdressers . It is not an affectation , but sheer survival .

See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Super Refugee”

Note the insistence of disciplined groups like the military or police to hair grooming . Or the inverse , the trust civilians have for anybody with a taut haircut .

See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Old Age Markers”
Note the hairstyles of the Mandarin class in China : shaven in front , denoting wisdom from survival , and extravagant hair (plaits) at the back , denoting humanity .
Hence , a monk will shave his head denoting a divorce from human concerns .

If someone obviously not in a religious order shaves his head (like bouncers , etc) they signal an indifference to the grooming order . They are essentially doomed . An extremely interesting feedback cycle is initiated that ends in the marginalization of such individual . They tend not to have children .


It must be noted that these are universal hominin markers , operating at well below conscious perception .

Andre

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Appendix II
Moro Reflex
Fear of falling , or more exactly , fear of losing contact with mummy’s hairy , ticklish back . (Knismesis) .This can be mimicked by the infant .
But the motion of muscles in mummy’s back is more reassuring . (Gargalesis) . Heavy tickling . Associated with clutching hard . Semi-random .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_reflex
This reflex is a response to a sudden loss of support, when the infant feels as if it is falling. It is believed to be the only unlearned fear in human newborns[citation needed]. The primary significance of this reflex is in evaluating integration of the central nervous system (CNS), and it involves 3 distinct components:
1. spreading out the arms (abduction)
2. unspreading the arms (adduction)
3. crying (usually)
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