Have you ever met a famous person? I have met perhaps the most famous—Stephen Hawking. I was working at a physics institute where he was a guest speaker, and it was my job to tell him about the facilities there. The other staff members had been abuzz about his a rrival for weeks—and why not? He was arguably the smartest person on the planet! He even spoke to me through his voice modulator!! But the craziest part about my meeting him was that I did not feel nervous. I was certainly excited and honored, but I retained my composure because I had a job to do. Then recently, I met a few actors from a TV show that I love, and I lost my ability to speak. I could not formulate complete sentences, my heart was thumping in my ears, and I felt a little light headed. I knew these were just people who happened to act for a living, and yet somehow I could barely function in their presence. So how the bleep does a TV actor make me more nervous than Stephen Hawking? Because my logical brain is not
Explaining fandom from an evolutionary point of view.