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NancyLebovitz comments on Open Thread: January 2010 - Less Wrong
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Point 1: I'm not sure what you mean by physical needs. If human babies aren't cuddled, they die. Humans are the only known species to do this.
A General Theory of Love describes the connection between the limbic system and love-- I thought it was a good book, but to judge by the Amazon reviews, it's more personally important to a lot of intellectual readers than I would have expected.
I've heard that called "failure to thrive" before. Yes, we'd need some kind of machine to provide whatever tactile stimulation was required. Given the way many primates groom each other and touch each other for social bonding, I'd be surprised if it were just humans who needed touch.
A lot of animals need touch to grow up well. Only humans need touch to survive.
A General Theory of Love describes experiments with baby rodents to determine which physical systems are affected by which aspects of contact with the mother-- touch is crucial for one system, smell for another.