origins of simple phenomena

scientifically, I learned to separate phenomena to avoid complexities, so let's analyze two simple cases.

First, a child who has never seen the sea and immediately feels fascinated;

second, in the cells of a beehive, the hexagons geometrically optimize the volumes with respect to the walls to be built, and insects have no actual brain.

These perceptions of good and beauty appear without inherency with senses, reason, culture, or arts, so what are the origins?

The reply by Gemini:

That's an excellent approach – simplifying the problem to examine these "pure" instances of aesthetic perception. It highlights the potential for innate, pre-cognitive responses to certain visual and structural qualities.

Let's break down these two cases and explore their possible origins from a scientific perspective, focusing on what might be considered universal or evolutionarily hardwired.

Case 1: The Child and the Sea

The child's immediate fascination with the sea, without prior experience, suggests an inherent predisposition. Here are some scientific angles:

Biophilia Hypothesis: This is a strong contender. Coined by E.O. Wilson, the biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans have an innate tendency to connect with nature and other living systems. Our ancestors evolved in natural environments, and a deep, unconscious affinity for elements like water (essential for survival), vast open spaces (for prospect and safety), and certain natural patterns might be deeply embedded in our psychology. The sea offers a combination of these: the rhythmic movement of waves, the vastness of the horizon, the shifting colors, and the sheer power. These elements could trigger a positive, even awe-filled, physiological and psychological response.
Sensory Stimulation and Novelty: For a child, the sea presents an overwhelming array of novel sensory input. The visual expanse, the sounds of waves, the smell of salt, the feeling of the breeze – all these combine to create a powerful sensory experience. The brain, especially a developing one, is wired to seek and process novel stimuli, as this is crucial for learning and development. The "fascination" could partly be this intense engagement with new and rich information.
Evolutionary Preparedness: Beyond general biophilia, specific features of the sea might tap into ancient survival instincts. A reliable water source was paramount. The ability to scan a wide, open vista (like the horizon) for resources or threats would have been advantageous. While a child isn't consciously processing this, the underlying neural mechanisms might be activated by these features.

Case 2: The Beehive Hexagons

This is a different kind of "beauty" – one of perfect efficiency and mathematical elegance. Bees don't have brains capable of geometric reasoning or aesthetic appreciation in the human sense. So, where does this "perception of good and beauty" (which is more our interpretation of it) come from?

Natural Selection and Optimization: This is the primary scientific explanation. The hexagonal shape is the most efficient way to tile a plane with equal-sized cells, minimizing the amount of material (wax) needed for construction while maximizing the volume of storage. Any slight deviation from a perfect hexagon would be less efficient, requiring more effort and resources from the bees. Over countless generations, bees that built more efficient hexagonal cells would have had a survival advantage – they could store more honey with less work, leading to healthier colonies and more successful reproduction. This isn't a conscious "choice" or "perception of beauty" by the bees, but rather an outcome of evolutionary pressure selecting for optimal design.
Physics and Material Properties: The inherent properties of the wax, combined with the forces involved in construction (e.g., surface tension when the cells are initially formed, or the way bees push and pull on the wax), naturally lead to the formation of these stable, interlocking hexagonal structures. It's a physical phenomenon as much as a biological one.
"Beauty" as an Indicator of Optimization: For us, observing the beehive, its "beauty" derives from recognizing its perfection and efficiency. It's a reflection of nature's elegant solutions to engineering problems. We, with our developed cognitive abilities, perceive this mathematical order and functional excellence as beautiful because it aligns with our own innate recognition of order, pattern, and efficiency. It taps into a deep human satisfaction derived from observing perfect design.

The Origins: Innate Universal Principles

In both cases, what seems to be at play are deep-seated, often unconscious, responses to certain fundamental qualities of the world:

Innate Responses to Natural Features: The child's fascination with the sea points to an evolved affinity for life-sustaining environments and visually stimulating natural phenomena. These preferences would have conferred a survival advantage.
Innate Appreciation for Order, Pattern, and Efficiency: The beehive illustrates how our brains might be wired to find order and optimal design inherently pleasing. This could stem from the evolutionary advantage of recognizing and creating efficient structures and processes in our own environment. Simple, clear, and efficient patterns are often easier for the brain to process, leading to a sense of "perceptual fluency" that is experienced as pleasurable.

So, while "senses, reason, culture, or arts" certainly shape and refine our aesthetic experiences, these two examples suggest a deeper, more primal layer.

The origins lie in a combination of:

Evolutionary adaptation: Traits that promoted survival and reproduction (like seeking out vital resources or building efficient shelters) became ingrained, leading to pleasurable responses to stimuli associated with those advantageous outcomes.
Fundamental cognitive processing: Our brains are wired to detect patterns, symmetry, order, and efficiency. Stimuli that align with these basic processing mechanisms often elicit a positive, "beautiful" response, as they are easier to comprehend and signify a stable, predictable environment.

It's less about a conscious "perception of beauty" in the child or bee, and more about how their fundamental biological and physical realities predispose them (or the structure they create) to exhibit qualities that we, as human observers, categorize as "beautiful" due to our own evolutionary and cognitive make-up.