Quote:
Originally Posted by Knalus
I understand the scientific basis behind evolution. But most of you guys are missing his point. There are urges and desires and wants in the animal kingdom. Many of these urges and desires are towards procreation, as can be understood. But there is something more to it than just that. Much like your own impulses. Many here have urges to correct his science, but these urges are just that. Urges. Wants. They did not simply evolve into being, precisely because there is nothing simple about it. What possible procreational benefit could there be to arguing on a message board? Much less some of the idiosyncratic behaviors of my different cats?
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Damn, I had written a long response to this and then my connection died and I lost it. To expand on what Makarov said, striving to survive and propagate are naturally-selected behaviours. Or rather, they're behaviours that are the result of naturally-selected traits. This is an important distinction when we look at psychological evolution. It's an oversimplification to say 'what's the procreational benefit of an animal doing X?' You need to ask, 'what traits cause an animal to do X, and what are the benefits of such a trait (either to the individual or the group).'
For your example of arguing on a message-board, there are a number of potentially useful traits that contribute to this behaviour, from desire to participate in social environments, combativeness within such an environment, and an ability to learn behaviour and interaction from others. All of these things are potentially useful adaptations.