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Comment by abfan1127 | Hacker News Reader

what says play doesn't increase the chance of survival?

If you spend any time researching play at all, you'll find that's pretty much a universal view among scientists who study it. It's essential training and learning for survival. Love Graeber, RIP, but if that's something he claimed then he's unfortunately off on that one.

sorry, the universal rule is play isn't important, or the universal rule is play is important? Also, do you have some leads on sources? I'd be interested on reading up on this.

I don't understand your first question...

I think this[1] would be your definitive resources but if you can just search for "evolution of play" then you'll find a lot of stuff. Wikipedia has a hodgepodge of perspectives in section on the purpose of play [2] but you might be better off tracking down those citations.

1. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-handbook-...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_(activity)#Development_an...

I might be misunderstanding Graeber, but I thought his point was that by viewing play through the calculus of evolution and survival probabilities, scientists have not paid as much attention to the fact that play is fun.

How did animals come to play? Because it allows them to explore their environment and increases their evolutionary fitness. Why do animals continue to play? Because they enjoy it.

Making you enjoy it is nature's trick to make sure you do it's bidding.

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