What is beauty?

According to the Speculist, beauty is a program:

The program is deliberately designed to be perceived as the will of the host organism (the guy who's looking) playing out - rather than a preprogrammed directive. This deliberately stealthy program takes over most of the identity and action of the host during puberty and - at least until reproduction succeeds - and in all truth, continues without any letup until the hormones and other agents driving the program are reduced in effect by the ravages of aging. By way of example, a dog probably perceives that when it chases a stick it is "choosing to chase the stick" - yet, a human would say "well, dog's are IMPELLED to chase the stick by influence of instinct"...in just such a fashion, humans believe they CHOOSE to follow the siren song of beauty (a babelicious one) - yet, the very belief of such choice prevents them from ever knowing that they are NOT in control of their actions (and thus - lives).

Fascinating stuff. I think he's right, and I find that to be oddly frightening.