By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/09/2026Maybe it's a primate grooming reflex, maybe it's receiving a gesture of love and care. Maybe those are the same things. Having your itch scratched for you feels *good*. 1110
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/09/2026Not just primates, either: cats with the flexibility to reach any part of their body with all four of their paws *and* their teeth will nevertheless purr like a badly-tuned diesel outboard when you scratch them *just right*. 2140
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/09/2026Since the outset, the free software/open source movement has extolled the virtues of technological self-determination, which is to say, deciding how the computers and programs you use will work. This is often described as "scratching your own itch." 1181
Vania @dawookie.bsky.social · 26/09/2026the dual survival drives of love vs hunger means collective survival has to matter as much to a social species' brain as individual survival how to ensure social species collectivize? oxytocin touch addiction it's one of the many things #ArmageddonCapitalism discourages to keep us hunger-based 000
