 Steven Pinker ("How the Mind Works", 1997) suggests that aesthetic responsiveness is merely a side effect of cognitive powers that evolved to fulfill more practical functions, but Pinker also suggests that narratives can provide information for adaptively relevant problems.Geoffrey Miller ("The Mating Mind", 2000) argues that artistic productions in the ancestral environment served as forms of sexual display in order to demonstrate fitness and attract mates, similarly to the function of the peacock's tail.Brian Boyd ("On the Origin of Stories", 2009) argues that the arts are forms of cognitive "play" that enhance pattern recognition.